Northern Rockies Wolves Not Recovered, No Matter What Ed Bangs Says….

Well I guess Ed Bangs is stepping down, after years of trying to delist wolves in the Northern Rockies. Makes absolutely no sense to me to spend all the time and money the feds did to reintroduce wolves only to work twice as hard to turn them over to the states to be hunted. Ed Bangs says wolves are recovered in the Northern Rockies with just 1700 animals in three states, inhabiting just 5% of their historic range? I don’t think so.

From the Ravalli Republic:

“….he decided the science showed that wolf populations had recovered enough to take them off the list of animals protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.“

What science??

The Great Lakes Region has over 4000 wolves, in a smaller land mass with millions more people, yet the puny wolf population in the Northern Rockies has been declared recovered because USFWS,  Western politicians, ranchers and hunters say so? Give me a break. Wait until the states get a hold of them and start hunting them. Then we’ll have the double whammy of Wildlife Services’ hunts and State run wolf hunts. That deadly combination killed off 500 wolves in the Northern Rockies in 2009, when wolves were delisted for the second time.  Now the states want to up the ante with wolf archery and back country rifle seasons. Does the image of the magnificent wolf full of arrows, to satisfy some trophy hunters blood lust, fill you with anger? How about Idaho’s plan to use baiting , calling, leg hold traps and snares on wolves in their hunts make you feel?  Of course Idaho might not wait for wolf hunts, they’ve got the Wolf Emergency Disaster legislation to fall back on.  And this is what the USFWS thinks is good for wolves?

Wolves are not recovered. They will never be recovered in the Northern Rockies because as soon as they are delisted the states will hunt them hard and their numbers will drop and we’ll be right back where we were before.

Wolves are not game animals and should not be killed for sport. They are extremely social animals with a love for family and extreme loyalty to their pack mates. Is this what we brought wolves back for, to turn them into rugs on someone’s floor? The USFWS knows the toxic atmosphere existing in the Northern Rockies concerning wolves, yet they think it’s such a great triumph to throw wolves under the bus, watch them delisted in the most underhanded way, in a budget rider for votes, than declare victory? I guess USFWS doesn’t mind the ESA was gutted just to get to wolves. Now any protected animal that’s “politically incorrect” can be delisted in an appropriations bill?

It’s a hollow victory and all the hoopla surrounding Ed Bangs retirement doesn’t change that. Wolves were betrayed by the Obama admin, USFWS and Congress.

“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” …Abraham Lincoln

Here’s a puff piece on Ed Bang’s retirement.

Adventures in wolf recovery ending for Ed Bangs as he retires from USFWS

http://www.ravallirepublic.com/news/state-and-regional/58888dfc-26c8-59bf-9a5e-d109ba30068a.html

This what wolves are in for. The haters are chomping at the bit!!

 Idaho and Montana prepare for wolf hunts

A congressional budget bill rider takes wolves off the endangered species list in the two states. Hunters are happy, but wildlife advocates are outraged.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-idaho-wolves-20110425,0,4671581.story?track=rss

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Photo: Courtesy All About Wolves

Posted in: Wolf Wars

Tags: Ed Bangs Retires, USFWS lets wolves down, hollow victory, wolves betrayed