All the pleas, the testimony from Native Americans, didn’t make any difference at all. The Wisconsin Assembly passed AB502 early this morning. Let’s turn back the clock to 1909, the second wolf pogrom is under way except this time, they’ll keep around a small, beleaguered group of wolves to torture every year for trophy hunters. I can’t tell you how disgusted and angry I feel right now. Three years of this madness since Obama delisted wolves. And for what?
In the brief AP report it was mentioned the bill passed over the objection of Democrats so I’m assuming all the ugly particulars sailed right through. Now wolves can be hunted with dogs (a pack of up to six dogs can be used to track and trail a wolf), hunted at night, clubbed to death in traps, shooting across roads will be allowed, the use of almost any type of weapon including muzzle loaders, handguns, shotguns, bow and arrows, crossbows, traps and snares, predator calls, baiting and a hunt extending into wolf breeding season, allowing pregnant alpha wolves to be shot and killed along with their unborn pups. Nice going Wisconsin.
These are the groups who reported lobbying for this monstrosity of a bill. This wolf hunt is being driven by “thrill kill seekers” and has nothing to do with science but everything to do with providing amusement for trophy hunters.
Groups Reported Lobbying For Wolf Hunt Bill
Safari Club International, Wisconsin Chapters United Sportsmen of Wisconsin, Inc. Wi~Force (Wisconsin Firearm Owners, Ranges, Clubs & Educators, Inc.) Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association Wisconsin Bowhunters Association Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation Wisconsin Independent Businesses Inc Wisconsin Pork Association Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association (CRANBERRIES???)
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Group Reported Lobbying Against the Wolf Hunt Bill
Stockbridge-Munsee Community ( I don’t know who you are but thank you for standing for wolves)
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Wisconsin has declared war on its wolves. Please consider a boycott of Wisconsin products and tourism. There are plenty of other places to visit and buy cheese. Shame on the Wisconsin legislature! Shame!
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Assembly passes bill creating wolf hunt
Posted: Mar 14, 2012 2:33 AM MDT Updated: Mar 14, 2012 2:33 AM MDT
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A wolf hunt in Wisconsin would be created under a bill that has passed the state Legislature.
The Assembly passed the measure early Wednesday morning despite objections from Democrats who argued concerns of experts about the need for such a hunt and the way it was organized under the bill.
The vote will be held today in BOTH the Wisconsin Senate and House. Please continue to call and express your outrage over both awful bills. Thanks so much for your efforts, I know it’s hard to be deluged with bad news all the time but we must keep trying for the wolves, we can’t abandon them!
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Update: March 5, 2012
Lets get busy today and contact as many Wisconsin Senators and Representatives as possible. The Assembly vote is tomorrow, March 6, 2012. We can do this. Don’t forget to sign the Care2 Petition included in this post. Lets go Warriors!!
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Wisconsin wolves need your help and quick! Two horrible wolf hunting bills are moving with lightning speed through the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly (House of Representatives). They would allow wolves to be hunted down by dogs, hunted at night, clubbed to death in traps and much more. This has to be stopped.
The Assembly bill is up for a vote on Tuesday, March 6, 2012.
Please contact members of the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly and the sponsors of these bills. Their contact information is included in this post. If you are out-of-state let them know you will not step one foot in Wisconsin or spend a dime there if these barbaric bills are passed. If you are a Wisconsin resident tell them you will make it your mission to vote any Senator or Representative out of office if they support these bills. We have the numbers on our side, we are the majority!!
*Here is what Gaylord Yost, retired from 34 years of forestry service in Wisconsin had to say about AB502 and SB411 :*
** “One of the most absurd pieces of legislation ever put forth by extremists in the legislature is now moving through the legislative process – AB 502.This bill provides not only threatens human safety but is full of the most barbaric inhumane treatment of a wildlife population ever written into proposed law. People who countenance this sort of treatment of animals ought to be subject to the law themselves and imprisoned for inhumane treatment of animals. *There are 5.6 million people in Wisconsin, 3.4 million cattle, 1 million deer, and 800 wolves. If you listen to the gun-toting minority of hunters in this state, one would think that these wolves are threatening the very existence of humanity. *While thousands of people get killed every year by automobile and thousands by gun fire, the 800 wolves present a wonderful target for testosterone filled males who love guns and get off by killing some wild animal. This law is nothing more than one more SUPERPAC hunter/trapper move to dominate our wildlife management.
Please vote NO to this piece of trash legislation.”
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Americans loves wolves. The coordinated nationwide attack on them is unconscionable and unprecedented. Stand up for Wisconsin’s wolves, time is of the essence!!
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Paul C., an outraged Wisconsin wildlife advocate, explains the dire situation wolves are facing in Wisconsin.
There is an urgent crisis in Wisconsin that needs immediate attention. The horror and brutality that we are witnessing in the Northern Rockies is about to be played out in Wisconsin through even more cruel methods. On January 27th, the same day the gray wolf was officially removed from the Endangered Species List in Wisconsin, Minnesota,and Michigan, RepresentativeScott Suder(R) introduced a bill into the Wisconsin Assembly:
The bill, AB 502, would institute a wolf “harvesting” season in Wisconsin that would start on October 15th and end the last day of February, four and a half months. The extreme length of this season is not even the most disturbing element of this bill. The bill authorizes wolves to be hunted by packs of dogs, at night, from and across roads, trapped, baited, and killed by any weapon imaginable. Not surprisingly this bill is being supported by a large number of nefarious hunting groups, including The Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association, Safari Club International, and the NRA among others. If this bill passes bear/wolf hounders will be able to run their dogs through the Wisconsin woods terrorizing our wildlife for EIGHT MONTHS of the year. Trappers will also be allowed to trap wolves through the use of any type of trap and kill trapped wolves by any method imaginable, including bashing in their skulls while they cower in terror, in the same manner baby seals in Canada are killed.
This bill and its companion in the Wisconsin Senate, SB 411, have both been passed by their respective committees. They now move on to floor votes. The speed in which these bills are being moved forward is especially alarming. The Assembly public hearing was announced to the general public only one day before it occurred. It was voted on last week and passed 13 to 1. The Senate public hearing occurred on Tuesday the 28th and the bill was voted on in the committee today. It passed 5 to 2. It may be too late to defeat this bill, but we need to try. If Wisconsin is allowed to carry out this extreme and brutal plan other states with wolves will likely follow. Our state institutions across the country have been taken over by the extremists in the hunting and trapping communities. The average citizen has no say in what happens to our wildlife. In Wisconsin we need to stand our ground and show them that we the people, do not approve of this.
The following is the statement I submitted to the Senate Natural Resources Committee in opposition to this bill….Paul C.
This statement is to register my opposition towards SB 411, as a concerned citizen of the State of Wisconsin.
On January 27, 2012 management of the gray wolf was officially turned over to the State of Wisconsin. This event happened through the hard work and dedication of those who devoted their time and energy to bring this majestic animal back from a successful extermination campaign in the 19th and 20th centuries. This return should be celebrated. However, within hours of the official delisting announcement a bill was introduced by Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford), AB502, which would establish a wolf “harvesting” season in Wisconsin. This bill proposes a path to a second extermination in the most brutal ways possible. In a Wisconsin State Journal article, dated February 1, 2012, Rep. Suder makes it clear that his goal is to reduce the wolf population to 350 from an estimated number of 800. He repeated the same statement on Wisconsin Public Radio the next day. What is even more disturbing are the provisions contained within SB 411/AB 502 that allow for a four and a half month hunting season, use of dogs, trapping, electronic calls, bait, shooting from and across roads, and the continued reimbursement for bear hunters whose dogs are killed by wolves.
The gray wolf is a valued species among a vast swath of our state’s citizens, yet these bills appear to have been written for a very narrow segment of the population. Hunters and trappers are a small segment of the population in this country. People who hunt with dogs are an even smaller minority within the overall population of citizens and hunters. Why was their input valued more than the rest of state citizens? The authors of this bill sought the input of the Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association, Safari Club International, and other like-minded groups. These groups represent a minority of Wisconsin citizens, yet many of the provisions in this bill appear to have been written on their behalf, especially the provisions to hunt with dogs, and at night. Where is the input from the citizens that value the gray wolf as more than a moving target to be shot, trapped, or ripped to shreds by a pack of dogs? In the February 2nd interview on Wisconsin Public Radio, Rep. Suder called hunting with dogs a “tradition” in Wisconsin. The reality is that this is only a “tradition” for a very tiny segment of the population, not the vast majority of state citizens including other hunters. In fact, recent surveys by the University of Wisconsin show that the vast majority of Wisconsin citizens oppose the hunting of wolves by dogs. This provision and many others in this bill are horrendous and do nothing but put Wisconsin in a bad light.
To allow a species that was considered endangered less than a month ago to be hunted through the most barbaric methods possible is not only concerning, but shameful. It is also shameful to justify this bill as anything other than a twisted method of “payback” against a species that a vast number of Wisconsin citizens cherish. There are already mechanisms in place to allow the state to deal with depredating wolves and packs. The real intent of this bill seems to be only providing another species to be hunted for “recreational” purposes, in the most brutal ways possible.
Wolves are not killing all of the deer, and they are not going to eat your children. Do we really need to be reminded again that Little Red Riding Hood is fiction? Using fear mongering tactics and pandering to special interests is no way for wildlife to be managed in our state. This bill and the provisions contained within should be rejected. Paul C.
Please contact the “authors” and sponsors of this bill and let them know what you think of it. The Assembly is completely controlled by the GOP and the bill will pass easily. It is the state senators who should be contacted to express outrage against this bill, and ask them to vote against it. The following is a link to the legislators:
Time is running short and we need all of the help that we can get. This bill not only affects Wisconsin’s wolves but the fate of wolves all over the United States. It must be stopped!
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Patricia Randolph’s Madravenspeak: Defenseless wolves urgently need howl of public support
“I was like, Yes! Fear the wrath of man! I got a rush. I was showing the animal that I’m better, more powerful, and able to control their existence.”— anonymous hunter
AB 502, the wolf kill bill, recently passed the Assembly Natural Resources committee 13-1, with Rep. Brett Hulsey, D-Madison, the only panel member to vote against it. On Thursday, the Senate Natural Resources Committee passed the companion bill, SB 411, by 5-2. The bill is now scheduled for Assembly action on Tuesday, March 6.
The Senate hearing on companion bill SB 411 was held Feb. 28. Most of the senators were absent for most of the six-hour hearing. Testimony was equally split pro and con. However, thespecial interest groupsexpressed a great fondness for the outdated, 20-year-old plan for reducing wolf numbers to 350.
AB 502 and SB 411 promote steel jaw traps and cable restraints, night hunting from roads and shining lights to confuse the wolves. Bait and lures. They expand hounding from cruelty to bears to include wolves (and all wildlife) 24/7 for 135 days and nights — eight months of mayhem. This gives no rest to the animals or citizens trespassed upon. Michael Vick went to prison for running a dog-fighting operation. These bills are dog and wolf bloodlust on steroids.
Bear hunters have been compensated from the Wolf License Plate Funds an average of $2,400/dog, for dogs killed when they terrorized our wildlife. If this bill goes through, wolf killers will feed at the public trough again when the dogs they pit against wolves are killed.
Richard Thiel, a DNR wildlife biologist for 34 years, created and managed the wolf recovery plan for much of 1980-2011. He urged restraint and the postponing of a wolf hunt for at least a few years. There is a plan in place for “problem wolves” who prey on livestock.
The feds say a conservative estimate of annual illegal kill in Wisconsin is 100 wolves — or 12 percent of the 690-800 wolves now here. The prudent approach would be to implement the current DNR plan for a few years, then reassess.
Adrian Treves, associate professor in UW’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and head of the Carnivore Coexistence Lab, is co-author of an article titled “Rescuing Wolves From Politics: Wildlife as a Public Trust Resource.” He testified that the bill as written could affect the long-term health of the state’s gray wolf population. He said the bills propose untested methods over a very long season in too broad an area and legislate management decisions without the input of technical and scientific experts.
“The evidence simply isn’t there to indicate that hunting wolves would affect depredations of domestic animals,” he said.
Although hunters tout themselves as conservationists, Treves’ surveys in Wisconsin reveal hunter attitudes toward wolves that arelargely inconsistent with stewardship. That is in line with many of the comments on wolf-hunting websites like “note to self … bring exploding broadheads!”
Warning disturbing video
Bear hunters claim they wrote these bills with seven lawyers. They apparently see the Gov. Scott Walker regime as opportunity to expand their cruelty addiction beyond bear cubs to wolves and their families.
Posted in: Wolf Wars, Wisconsin Wolves, Animal Cruelty, Action Alerts
Tags: Wisconsin wolf hunt, hunting wolves with dogs, clubbing wolves in traps, Defeat Senate Bill 411, Defeat Assembly Bill 502, TAKE ACTION NOW, Scott Suder
This blog is dedicated to the memory of Wolf 253, the beloved Yellowstone Druid wolf named Limpy, who was shot and killed in March 08, on the very day ESA protections were lifted for the gray wolf, by the then Bush Administration.
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