===
WOLVES ARE DYING!!
===
Video: Courtesy Animal Connection You Tube
Photo: Courtesy Thinkstock
Posted in: Wolf Wars
Tags: Stand up for wolves, wolf scapegoating, wolf slaughter, wolf extermination, TAKE ACTION
===
===
Video: Courtesy Animal Connection You Tube
Photo: Courtesy Thinkstock
Posted in: Wolf Wars
Tags: Stand up for wolves, wolf scapegoating, wolf slaughter, wolf extermination, TAKE ACTION
Idaho can’t seem to stop killing wolves. In early February, according to an IDFG press release, Idaho Wildlife Services swept down in their aerial gunships and slaughtered 14 innocent Lolo wolves. Their excuse? What else? Blaming wolves for elk declines in the Lolo, even though elk have been declining in the Lolo long before wolves were reintroduced.
This is the height of wolf breeding season. How many of those fourteen wolves were pregnant? Killing two birds with one stone? Did they wait until breeding season to wipe out the next generation of Lolo wolves along with their mothers?
By Ken Cole On February 22, 2012
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game issued a press release this afternoon stating that in early February, USDA Wildlife Services killed 14 wolves from helicopters in the Lolo Zone.
===
Is this killing spree ever going to end? Just yesterday the Idaho Senate Resources and Environment Committee voted to send Siddoway’s “Wolf Killing Live Bait” bill to the full Senate for a vote.
“The bill would let livestock owners whose animals are molested by wolves shoot the wolves from motorized vehicles, powered parachutes, helicopters or fixed-wing planes, by night or day, using rifles, pistols, shotguns, or crossbows, night scopes, electronic calls, and traps with live bait.
On top of that we have the latest horror of 14 dead Lolo wolves. 321 wolves have been killed in the hunt, which doesn’t end until March 31, 2012 and stretches until June 2012 in the Lolo and Selway zones.
Idaho is a killing zone for wolves. The persecuted animals need their federal protections back and the way Idaho is killing wolves, it won’t be long before wolves are relisted. The state is proving it CANNOT and SHOULD not be allowed to “manage” wolves.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/feb/23/aerial-gunners-kill-14-wolves-north-idaho/
===
===
Photo: Courtesy the Missoulian
Posted in: Wolf Wars, Idaho wolves, Aerial Gunning of Wolves
Tags: Lolo wolves, Aerial gunning, 14 Lolo wolves dead, Wolf Wars, wolf scapegoating
Wolves are coming to the big screen today in “The Grey,” a man-versus-beast thriller starring Liam Neeson.
When their plane crashes in Alaska’s frozen wilderness, a bunch of oil-field roughnecks fight for survival. Not only do the men combat cold and hunger, they’re stalked by a wolf pack.
Film previews feature eerie howls and shots of feral eyes glinting in the darkness. When carnage ensues in this R-rated film, the wolves are usually the winners.
But the movie’s portrayal of wolves as man-eaters dismays Gary Wiles.
“My first reaction was, ‘Oh, no!’ ” said Wiles, a wildlife biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. “It looks totally like a Hollywood-contrived movie: something to strike at people’s basic fears.”
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/jan/27/state-biologist-dreads-hollywood-portrayal-of/
UPDATE: January 2o, 2012
Howling for Justice will continue to highlight this post until the movie opens on January 27, 2012 and beyond. We are happy to see that Wild Earth Guardians has joined the fight and is also calling for a “blacklist of The Grey”.
UPDATE: January 17, 2012
As if there aren’t enough reasons to dislike this movie, add the sickening fact that Liam Neeson and the cast of “The Grey” actually ate wolf meat while making this “movie”. The thought of them eating the flesh of the ancestor of our beloved dogs, makes me physically ill.
One more BIG REASON to BOYCOTT “THE GREY”.
I guess Hollywood doesn’t have anything better to do then demonize wolves. With two wolf hunts mowing down wolves in the Northern Rockies, aerial gunning planned in Idaho’s Lolo zone, wolves in the Great Lakes coming off the endangered species list, facing brutal hunts, Hollywood decided this would be a good time to make a movie about killer wolves.
Wolves are the least dangerous of large predators in North America.
THERE HAS NOT BEEN ONE FATAL WOLF ATTACK ON HUMANS IN THE LOWER FORTY EIGHT IN OVER A HUNDRED YEARS OF RECORD KEEPING.
There have been two controversial human/wolf fatal encounters in North America, in the last century, that’s it. You have a better chance of accidentally being killed by hunters (100 fatal hunting accidents per year in the US and Canada with another 1000 injured) or have your child shot @ a bus stop. It’s not wolves parents should worry about @ bus stops but stray bullets from hunters.
Our beloved dogs, kill another 30 people or more a year and bite approx. 4.7 million people annually. Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs but those are the facts.
Deer/vehicle accidents claim at least 200 lives every year and cause billions of dollars in damages. You know why there are so many deer? The fish and game agencies make sure predators are targeted and their numbers kept low. Then deer populations explode causing hundreds of thousands of auto accidents.
In Canberra, the capital of Australia, they’ve decimated the dingoes, the kangaroo’s only natural predator. Around the city there’s been an explosion of the Roo population. The Roos hop into the city at night, munch on people’s lawns, get hit by cars and chased by dogs. These are “urban kangaroos”, pushed into the city by drought, dwindling habitat and their own over-population. When Roo numbers get too high “wildlife managers” control them by “culling/killing” kangaroos by the thousands. Roo mothers are shot in the head during “the culls” and their little pouched “Joeys” are either decapitated or their skulls are crushed.
Australia isn’t any better at “managing” their wildlife then we are. They eliminate the top predator, the dingo, who could prevent kangaroo overpopulation. Instead, kangaroo numbers go up and the guns come out.
The same happens in America with deer. Natural predators are eliminated, the deer population explodes and you have a recipe for disaster.
Scientists say decimation of top consumers may be “humankind’s most pervasive influence on the natural world” due to cascading effects on ecosystems
July 14, 2011
By Tim Stephens
http://news.ucsc.edu/2011/07/apex-consumers.html
===
All because “wildlife managers” are short-sighted and listen to the hunting and ranching cabals instead of doing what’s right and healthy for our ecosystems.
===
A woman was recently killed by flying deer parts (head and shoulders). The deer had been cut in half in another accident.
December 29, 2011 9:41AM
POLICE in western Pennsylvania say a woman was killed when part of a deer struck by another vehicle went through her windshield and hit her.
People die from bee stings, are fatally stomped by moose, run over by trains, approx. 90 people are killed by lightning strikes each year, in 2010 14, 748 people were murdered in the US, I could go on and on.
My point? Wolf attacks are VERY RARE. So rare that making a movie about killer wolves is ridiculous. Wolves DO NOT need more bad press, the anti-wolf crowd spends their waking hours spreading myths and lies about wolves. Just because someone came up with this lame-brained idea of a movie, doesn’t mean it had to be made. It will do nothing but hurt wolves, just like the movie Jaws hurt the image of sharks. 70 to 90 million sharks are killed every year around the world.
You can picket your local theater where “The Grey” will be playing but personally I think that draws more attention, people love controversy. BUT do contact the theater complex and let them know how you and your friends feel about this movie and that you’ll be staying away.
I call on the producer and director to re-consider what they’re doing. Are they not aware of the nasty campaign being waged against wolves across this country but specifically in the Northern Rockies? Have they not done their homework? Do they care? Wolf haters don’t need help from Hollywood to persecute wolves. What happened to all the environmentalists in the movie industry? Will they be silent and allow this misunderstood, highly intelligent, social animal to be characterized as something they’re not?
At the very least a disclaimer is needed, wolves rarely ever attack people. They are shy and reclusive, dedicated to their families. The exception to wolves exhibiting extreme fear of humans is when wolves been habituated to human presence, as in Yellowstone National Park. where because of their rock star status, they are exposed to people on a regular basis. Visitors are fascinated by these iconic animals and can’t get enough of them. Wolves generate at least 35 million dollars annually to the GYA (Greater Yellowstone Area). Yellowstone wolves do tolerate human presence because they don’t perceive humans as threats inside the park. Outside the park is a different story, since these wolves are so used to people they are easy targets. The most unfortunate incident happened during Montana’s 2009 wolf hunt, when FWP opened the hunt right outside park boundaries. Wolves routinely move in and out of the park because they can’t read signs. Hunters took advantage of this and decimated the studied and famous Cottonwood Pack, killing the alpha male and female and their powerful daughter. When the alpha pair is killed the pack usually disperses.
Shame on the director and producers of this film. They should visit the Northern Rockies, where brutal wolf hunts are in full swing and see for themselves the hatred and scapegoating wolves are subjected to.
Please read Bill Gibson’s article in the LA Times, to get up to speed on what wolves are being subjected to. Maybe you’d understand how damaging “The Grey” will be to wolves and why advocates are so upset over this.
December 08, 2011|By J. William Gibson
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/08/opinion/la-oe-gibson-the-war-on-wolves-20111208
More examples of persecution. The Safari Club and others are providing incentives for hunters to go out and kill wolves and make
darn sure Montana meets it’s 220 dead wolf quota by February 15, 2012. February 15, 2012 is an extension from the original wolf hunt end date of December 31, 2012. Montana FWP moved the goalposts.
===”
THREE HUNDRED AND NINTY NINE WOLVES
are dead in the Montana/Idaho wolf hunts as of o1/20/12. And this is only January. Idaho’s wolf hunt runs through June 2012, in the Lolo and Selway zones, A TEN MONTH LONG HUNT!! Wolves in Idaho are dying painful deaths in brutal traps and choking snares.
Is there nothing Hollywood won’t do to make a buck? Not only does this movie unfairly depict wolves but it will contribute to the escalating wolf demonization.
===
Open Road Films
12301 Wilshire Boulevard
Suite 600
Santa Monica, California 90025.
Telephone: 310-696-7575. Fax: 310-571-2278.
Liam’ Neeson’s publicist is: Alan Nierob, Rogers & Cowan Public Relations, Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Avenue, 7th Floor, Los Angeles, California 90069. Telephone: 310-854-8100
Thank You. The wolves thank you!!
===
Wolves are under attack, having lost Endangered Species Act protection in many states, placing them in the crosshairs of a vocal minority in agribusiness and hunting groups who refuse to tolerate this ecologically vital carnivore. Hundreds have already been killed this winter and now Hollywood has jumped on the hysteria bandwagon by perpetuating the stereotype of wolves as evil and violent in the new film, “The Grey.”
Please join WildEarth Guardians in sending a strong message to the film director and boycotting “The Grey” so that anti-wolf profiteers like director Joe Carnahan won’t benefit from this terrible film.
CLICK HERE TO PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT FOR WOLVES
===
Here is a true wild wolf encounter with the added treat of seeing a grizzly sow with cubs. Do these wolves look like bloodthirsty killers who stalk people? Absolutely not.
Please visit Brad Joseph’s Wildlife Videos on YouTube and see how a true naturalist appreciates and photographs our vital apex predators, like the wolf and grizzly bear.
===
===
About Brad Josephs
http://www.alaskabearsandwolves.com/brad-josephs/
===
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Video: YouTube Brad Johnson’s Wildlife Channel
Posted in: Wolf Wars, gray wolf
Tags: boycott “The Grey”,wolf scapegoating, wolf demonization for profit, unfair representation of wolves, Liam Neeson, Open Road Films, Brad Johnson
December 8, 2011
Congress removed wolves in Montana and Idaho from the protection of the Endangered Species Act in April. And this fall, the killing began.
As of Wednesday, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game reported that 154 of its estimated 750 wolves had been “harvested” this year. Legal hunting and trapping — with both snares to strangle and leg traps to capture — will continue through the spring. And if hunting fails to reduce the wolf population sufficiently — to less than 150 wolves — the state says it will use airborne shooters to eliminate more.In Montana, hunters will be allowed to kill up to 220 wolves this season (or about 40% of the state’s roughly 550 wolves). To date, hunters have taken only about 100 wolves, prompting the state to extend the hunting season until the end of January. David Allen, president of the powerful Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, has said he thinks hunters can’t do the job, and he is urging the state to follow Idaho’s lead and “prepare for more aggressive wolf control methods, perhaps as early as summer 2012.”
November 17, 2011
Dear Friends,
More than ever, Idaho’s wolves need your voice to speak for them.
On Black Tuesday, November 15, 2011, a five-month trapping and snaring season began. Anyone who has taken a brief course taught by professional wolf killers can now strangle or mangle wolves all winter up until March 31, 2012, in the Middle Fork Salmon River, Selway, Lolo, Panhandle or Dworshak-Elk City Zones. Up to 10 wolves can be taken by wolf trappers.
Idaho trappers are celebrating and the media is playing up to them. http://www.kval.com/news/national/133901783.html
Wolf killers want all of Idaho open to trapping and snaring. As of today, 127 wolves have died since August 30th, including at least 32 pups & yearlings. At least 1/3 of reports don’t even list the age of the wolf.
Idaho’s political fist (our red legislature, ranchers, big game outfitters, trophy hunters) aims to reduce wolves to 150 or less in Idaho. It has been a hard pill to swallow to see the Obama administration support this jihad against wolves in Idaho (and Montana and Wyoming).
We strongly suggest that you be extremely careful going anywhere in Idaho with your family, dog, or horse. The people who attended the trapping and snaring classes were sent home with a free snare “for practice”. Snares can quickly choke to death anything that has the misfortune to be caught in it. Bolt cutters (how many of us carry those?) are the only tool that will cut the cable in time to save a life.
Outrageous? Yes. You might encounter traps and snares anywhere. They can be legally set within 10’ from the middle of a trail. No warning signs required. Carry bolt cutters (cost $50). Always hike or ski with three people in case your dog is caught in a trap.
PROTEST THIS ATROCITY AGAINST WOLVES & YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AND PETS.
PLEASE PHONE OR EMAIL – BE BRIEF, POLITE & SINCERE.
IDFG Director Virgil Moore: (208) 334-3771 virgil.moore@idfg.idaho.gov
Jon Rachael, IDFG Wildlife Dept. (208) 334-2920 jon.rachael@idfg.idaho.gov
===
Governor Butch Otter office – (208) 334-2100
Leave message with secretary.
===
EMAIL IDFG COMMISSIONERS
http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/about/commission/?getPage=183
A Concerned Idaho Resident
===
leg hold trap cruelty
===
Photo: Courtesy all creatures
Posted in: Animal cruelty, Idaho wolves, Wolf Wars
Tags: leg hold traps, snares, wolf bloodbath, wolf scapegoating, Idaho wolf trapping, wolves suffering
ODFW is planning on killing the alpha male (pictured above) and another wolf from the Imnaha Pack, for livestock losses so small, they barely register statistically. Yet incredibly large numbers of cows drop dead in Oregon every year and all we hear are “crickets”.
So here we are, two wolves facing a death sentence. Apparently they are being tracked right now.
The alpha female and her pup of the year will be left to face the winter alone, with no help to bring down prey.
Here is B-300 better known as “Sophie”, crossing into Oregon in 2008. She would later become the alpha female of the Imnaha Pack. Look at her scampering along, beautiful and healthy. Little did she know what she was getting into.
In protest of ODFW’s egregious intention to slaughter two perfectly healthy Imnaha wolves, leaving just the alpha female and her pup of the year, two Portland Animal Defense League protesters, Stephanie Taylor and Justin Kay, chained themselves to the ODFW headquarter doors with bike locks.
Posted: Sep 27, 2011 6:31 PM MDTUpdated: Sep 27, 2011 7:31 PM MDT
SALEM, OR (KPTV) –
For nearly an hour and a half Tuesday morning, protestors took over the front entrance of the Department of Fish and Wildlife in Salem.
“We’ve tried everything from phone calls to the governor, phone calls here, letter writing, protests. Finally today, it ended with an act of civil disobedience,” said Tim Hitchins, with the Portland Animal Defense League.
Read More: http://www.kptv.com/story/15563955/two-arrested-during-wolf-killing-protest
The sad news is this is probably the end of the Imnaha Pack.
Oregon had 1,300,000 cattle at the beginning of 2011. Wolves apparently were responsible for 14 cow losses in 1.5 years. But thousands and thousands of cows were keeling over in Oregon from all manner of things, not wolf related.
Digestive problems
Respiratory problems
Metabolic problems
Mastitis
Lameness/injury
Other diseases
Weather related
Calving problems
Poisoning
Theft
(NASS 2010)
Why aren’t ranchers squawking about this? Those losses COULD affect their “bottom line”, not 14 supposed wolf depredations.
Isn’t it time to call this situation what it is. If if looks like a duck, quacks like a duck then it’s a duck. Plain and simple intolerance of wolves is ruling the day in eastern Oregon. Clearly ranchers don’t want them there and that’s what’s driving this train. The wishes of Oregon’s wildlife advocates and others, who would enjoy seeing wild wolves, apparently don’t count. The scapegoating and hysteria that plague the other wolf states has apparently taken hold in Oregon. Shame. This has completely altered my view of the state.
===
http://m.spokesman.com/stories/2011/sep/27/wolf-kill-order-could-spell-end-of-oregon-pack/
===
Idaho Fish and Game wants to know what you think about their deadly wolf hunt proposal. Please tell them and take their survey. Remember they want a seven month-long hunt, that goes right through wolf breeding and denning season, August 30,2011 to March 31, 2012.
They want to use traps and snares. Trappers don’t have to check their traps for up to 72 hours. How frightened and scared will wolves be waiting to die in leghold traps? Many with their families surrounding them unable to help. Is there a nastier way to die?
Trappers can kill up to five wolves.
Hunters can kill 2 wolves each.
There is no quota proposed in most of the state.
Electronic calls can be used throughout the state.
There are approx. 705 wolves in Idaho, not including the new pups of this year. These pups are in danger of losing their lives right along with their parents, either by direct killing by hunters or starvation.
PLEASE SPEAK OUT AGAINST THIS HORROR SHOW. THERE IS NO REASON TO KILL THESE WOLVES.
In my opinion this is a political hunt, the state is bowing to hunting and ranching groups, who don’t want wolves in the state. Hundreds and hundreds of wolves could be killed in just one season. Once these wolves are gone they are not coming back. Idaho is talking about managing for 150 wolves. Think about what that means and who is going to keep track of that? The state says there are 1000 wolves in the state counting the pups. So 850 wolves could be slaughtered in this hunt. And IDFG Director Virgil Moore stated this:
”Wolf control actions will take place in and out of the hunting season,” Moore promised.”“
That means wolves will be hunted on two fronts. This could be the end of wolves in Idaho or leave just a token number as ghosts on the landscape. I ask you is this right? Is this just?
It’s obvious the survey is written in such a way that it doesn’t give you good choices if you are against the hunting and trapping of wolves. I would concentrate on the comment section to get your point across. Not sure if you have to fill out the rest of the survey to be heard or if they’ll toss it if you don’t answer their self-serving questions. Do the best you can. Do not make threats or sink to the level of the anti-wolf crowd.
Top Photo: HuntFishGuide Flickr Commons
Bottom Photo: Courtesy AlaskaLoneWolf Flickr Commons
Posted in: Wolf Wars
Tags: Idaho wolf hunt 2011, Take the IDFG Survey, Speak Out for Wolves, wolf persecution, wolf scapegoating, Idaho wolves
If a policy is wrongheaded, feckless and corrupt, I take it personally and consider it a moral obligation to sound off and not shut up until it’s fixed……David Hackworth
Wolves of the Northern Rockies are in grave danger. They’ve been stripped of their ESA protections and are at the mercy of brutal state management plans. Why? Because a little more than two years ago, in the Spring of 2009, the Obama administration delisted wolves and I’m not going to pretty it up and say it was Ken Salazar who delisted them. Ken Salazar didn’t appoint himself, so let’s do away with the rah, rah I love Democrats BS and call it like it is. If if looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. Barrack Obama appointed Ken Salazar, the rancher, to head the Interior. He didn’t do it because he was dumb or misinformed, he did it to curry favor with the red states and the not–so–blue states, like Montana.
Once again wolves were abandoned by Democrats in 2011. Why? Because they are trying desperately to hang onto their Senate majority. So all those Dems that allowed Tester and Simpson to slip the wolf delisting slaughter rider into a must pass budget bill are responsible for what wolves are facing now. 81 Senators voted for the budget bill and Obama signed it into law, case closed. The Democrats sold out wolves and the ESA for votes and there is no way to spin that sad reality.
So what have they wrought? For starters they weakened the ESA and made it vulnerable to political wheeling and dealing. Never before, in the history of the ESA has Congress delisted a species for political expediency. They were willing to throw wolves under the bus to please a small, vocal, radical minority they hoped would vote for Tester if he was seen to be “out wolfing” his opponent Denny Rehburg. I have news for them it’s not going to work. I highly doubt Tester will be re-elected. They’ll lose their Senate majority but they’ll have lost much more. They’ll have lost the support of their base. The people who counted on them to stand up for the ESA and wolves. The people who wrote letters, faxed, phoned, emailed and generally poured their hearts and souls into saving wolves. They betrayed them as much as they betrayed wolves.
Just in case anyone in the Senate happens to read this blog I will tell you what you’ve brought down on wolves in the Northern Rockies. A 220 Montana quota for the fall wolf hunt. That’s 220 wolves marked for death. A tripling of the first Montana wolf hunt quota of 2009. If WS has their way they’ll add another 140 wolves or so to that total. That was the death toll in 2010. Doing the math that totals 360 innocent wolves, almost 2/3 of wolves currently living in Montana.
We can’t forget the upcoming Lolo wolf slaughter. The state of Idaho wants to aerial gun 50 innocent wolves in the middle of pupping season, for elk declines in the Lolo zone. Wolves will be killed for eating their natural prey and their little babies will die right along with them.
This is the wonderful state management the Senate vote brought down on wolves. Did any of the Senators even bother to learn about the toxic climate wolves live under every day of their lives in the Northern Rockies, stirred up by hate groups that would like to see nothing more than wolves total demise in the region? Apparently not.
Do we close our eyes to the horrific ways wolf families will suffer and die in Idaho and Montana? By arrow, by bullet, by leg hold trap, by snare and god only knows what tortures will be dreamed up to hurt them when nobody is looking. It wasn’t so long ago when wolves were poisoned, fed broken glass, dragged behind horses, set on fire, had their penises and jaws sewn shut, even hamstrung and thrown into pits with dogs. Any imaginable torture that could be dreamed up was practiced on wolves during the first Western extermination.
The state of Montana even introduced sarcoptic mange into the wolf population, which still plagues them to this day.
This was and is the ugly face of “wolf hunting”. The same mindset that allowed these horrors to occur once before is alive in the Northern Rockies today.
Sport hunting is animal cruelty couched as a sport. It has nothing to do with sport.
From: The Big Lie (1996) by Dino DiGiacomo
“People who enjoy killing animals have long tried to disguise their barbarity in a cloak of respectability they call “sporthunting.” The fact is, sporthunting does not exist. It never has.
All sports share certain conditions to ensure a sense of fair play and create equal opportunity for all participants. What the animal killers call sport hunting meets none of the conditions of real sports.
“Let’s take a look at some of the criteria that define sport
and why so-called sporthunting fails every one of them.
Willingness to Participate
In any sport, all participants choose to be there. Both boxers want to be in the ring that night, the players on both football teams want to be on the field that day, and both tennis players agree to meet on the court at that time. Sporthunting fails on this point because the animal is never a willing participant.
Knowing When the Contest Will Start
All basketball players are aware of the starting time of the game, giving them time to prepare. Golfers know what time they will tee off. Wrestlers know what time the match will start. They don’t expect their opponent to break into their home and hurt or kill them while they are sleeping or having breakfast with their family, which is what happens to animals because this sporting condition is not met.
Even Chance
All participants are given the same equipment with which to play the game. Both boxers have equally weighted gloves and protective gear, as do football and hockey players. Bowlers are only allowed to throw one ball at a time while all rowers use the same numbers of oars. Sporthunting fails here also because the hunters have airplanes,
automatic weapons, high-powered scopes, steel traps, etc., while the animal has only the equipment it was given at birth.
Equal Prize
The criterion here insures the same prize is awarded to whichever team or player wins the contest. The prize itself may be a trophy, belt or an award, but the commercial and athletic value of that prize is the same for each potential winner. Sporthunting fails miserably on this point because the prize is life itself, but it is not an equal prize. The hunter can only win or draw while the animal can only draw or lose. The hunter wins by killing the animal or draws if the animal manages to escape. Conversely, the animal draws by getting away or loses by being killed. The animal cannot win. Some hunters say that once in a while the animal wins by killing the hunter but that only happens on rare occasions with all the odds stacked against the animal, who is never a willing participant anyway.
I have heard some hunters say that hunting is not about the animals at all. It is, they insist, an awareness of self. Once and for all, let’s not buy into their facade.
Sporthunting is not a sport. It is simply an excuse for unhappy men and women to go out and kill. How do I arrive at the fact they are an unhappy lot? Look around you! Happy people do not take time away from their happiness to go out and kill something.
The real shame is that sporthunters pass this travesty onto their children who will come to believe that killing is a sport.”
=======
Senior Fellow, Center for International Policy
Posted: 04/11/11 04:09 PM ET
Although Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Barack Obama stood firm against Republican attempts to repeal clean air and clean water protections, wolves in the Northern Rockies weren’t so lucky.
Under pressure from ranching interests in Montana and Idaho, as well as anti-wolf zealots in those states, Reid and Obama agreed to accept an amendment from Montana Democrat Jon Tester mandating the removal of grey wolves in Idaho and Montana from the endangered species list. For Obama, at least, the move isn’t surprising: his administration backed the Bush administration’s delisting of wolves even though it would allow the two massive states to cut wolf populations to as few as 450 individuals between them.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-hurowitz/endangered-wolves-sacrifi_b_847673.html
=======
Photo: Courtesy All About Wolves
Posted in: Wolf Wars
Tags: wolf persecution, wolf scapegoating, 81 Senators voted yes, wolves politically delisted
Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Friends of the Clearwater are consulting with their attorneys about challenging the wolf delisting rider in court, on constitutional grounds.
Please click on the links below to visit their websites. Show your support with generous donations.
They showed courage and conviction, standing firm for wolves while the other ten plaintiffs brokered a deal with USFWS.
Of course the “settlement” by the 10 groups was ultimately rejected by Judge Molloy.
He stated in part:
But the victory was short-lived because the Senate allowed Jon Tester (D-MT) to slip a wolf delisting rider into a must-pass appropriations bill. 81 Senators voted for the budget bill and in turn sold wolves down the river. They even allowed the language of the rider to be rewritten so it wouldn’t jeopardize Wyoming’s court case, in pursuit of delisting their wolves. The rider reads:
“Before the end of the 60-day period beginning on the date of enactment of this division, the Secretary of the Interior shall reissue the final rule published on April 2, 2009 (74 Fed. Reg. 15123 et seq.) without regard to any other provision of statute or regulation that applies to issuance of such rule. Such reissuance (including this section) shall not be subject to judicial review and shall not abrogate or otherwise have any effect on the Order and Judgment issued by the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming in Case Numbers 09-CV-118J and 09-CV-138J on November 18, 2010.”
=======
Just to remind everyone:
http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&PageID=238576
=======
=======
by The Associated Press
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/10/135287332/judge-blocks-deal-on-protections-for-wolves
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-hurowitz/endangered-wolves-sacrifi_b_847673.html
=======
http://www.friendsofanimals.org/news/2011/april/afraid-for-wolves.html
Photo: Courtesy All About Wolves
Posted in: Wolf Wars, endangered species act
Tags: wolves in peril, wolf scapegoating, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Clearwater, political assault on the ESA
=======
Thank you,
=======
=======
Boxer, Barbara – (D-CA)
(202) 224-3553
Web Form: boxer.senate.gov/en/contact/
Bingaman, Jeff – (D-NM)
(202) 224-5521
Web Form: bingaman.senate.gov/contact/
Email: senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov
Cardin, Benjamin L. – (D-MD)
(202) 224-4524
Fax 202-224-1651
Web Form: cardin.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm
DC Phone: 202-224-2441
DC Fax: 202-228-2190
Gillibrand, Kirsten E. – (D-NY)
(202) 224-4451
Fax (212) 688-7444
Web Form: gillibrand.senate.gov/contact/
Kerry, John F. – (D-MA)
(202) 224-2742
Web Form: kerry.senate.gov/contact/
Lugar, Richard G. – (R-IN)
(202) 224-4814
Web Form: lugar.senate.gov/contact/
Merkley, Jeff – (D-OR)
(202) 224-3753
Fax: (202) 228-3997
Web Form: merkley.senate.gov/contact/
Murray, Patty – (D-WA)
(202) 224-2621
Fax: (202) 224-0238
Web Form: murray.senate.gov/email/index.cfm
Reed, Jack – (D-RI)
(202) 224-4642
Fax 401- 464-6837
Web Form: reed.senate.gov/contact/contact-share.cfm
Reid, Harry – (D-NV)
(202) 224-3542
Fax 202-224-7327
Web Form: reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
DC Phone: 202-224-4822
DC Fax: 202-228-0325
DC Phone: 202-224-2023
DC Fax: 202-224-6295
DC Phone: 202-224-5244
DC Fax: 202-228-2717
Web Form: whitehouse.senate.gov/contact/
The Whitehouse
www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461
If you live in Montana, please contact
Tester, Jon – (D-MT)
(202) 224-2644
Web Form: tester.senate.gov/Contact/index.cfm
======
Then call the rest of the Senate, as many members as you can, all day every day, until they get the message!!
Personally, I’m done with the Democratic Party if they go through with this. I will never in my life vote for another Democrat again!!
=======
=======
Senate bill would lift wolf protections in MT, ID
Story Published: Mar 4, 2011 at 7:00 PM MST
Story Updated: Mar 4, 2011 at 7:00 PM MST
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Gray wolves in Montana and Idaho would lose their Endangered Species Act protections under a provision inserted into a U.S. Senate budget bill.
The provision was included in a bill introduced Friday by Senate Democrats to fund the federal government through the end of the fiscal year.
The passage on wolves is identical to language in a budget measure that passed the House last month. It would require Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to reissue within 60 days a 2009 agency rule that turned over control of wolves to state wildlife officials.
That rule was overturned last year by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula. The measure before the Senate would shield Salazar’s actions from court review.
There are an estimated 1,400 wolves in the two states.
CLICK HERE for link to article
Photo: kewlwallpapers.com
Posted in: Wolf Wars, endangered species act
Tags: Senate Democrats sell out wolves, wolves on the brink, playing politics with wolves lives, wolf persecution, wolf scapegoating