On February 28th of this year–just 26 days after the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service denied gray wolves protections–Cody Roberts of Daniel Wyoming tortured and killed a gray wolf after running the wolf down with a snowmobile and taping their mouth shut.
This abhorrent act of cruelty cannot become normal or acceptable. The wildlife that you and I fight for every day face enough threats from habitat loss, climate change, and over consumption by lawful hunters. Torture cannot be added to that already-grave list.
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While this disgusting action likely shocks you as much as it does me, Mr. Roberts is currently facing a mere $250 fine for possessing a live wild animal. To put a fine point on that: running a wolf to exhaustion with a snowmobile and incapacitating them, taping their mouth shut, parading the still-live and likely-paralyzed wolf around a bar, and finally killing and skinning them do not violate state law. Only the possession of the live animal is a low-level infraction.
Wyoming’s Governor,1 the local sheriff,2 the Director of the state’s fish and wildlife agency, and former U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) Director Dan Ashe3 have issued statements condemning this brutal attack. But to date, the current Director of the USFWS, Martha Williams, and her boss, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, have had no comment.
The USFWS could have prevented this. We worked for more than two years to organize support for the protection of gray wolves in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana under the Endangered Species Act.4 Scientists, legal experts, activists, biologists, and Tribal representatives advocated to Secretary Haaland and Director Williams in support of protection.
And let’s be clear: Wyoming’s designated “predator zone,” 85 percent of the state where wolves can be shot on sight (without even a hunting license,) should never have been approved by the USFWS as an acceptable wolf management plan. Such a classification sends a message to the public that state wildlife officials consider wolves a pest and enables the type of horrific treatment of wolves that we witnessed last week.
As I wrote above, their decision to deny those crucial safeguards preceded this act of cowardly torture by just 26 days. I do not know if Mr. Roberts felt empowered by the USFWS deciding that these wolves did not warrant protection–but I do know that the agency could have acted before it and it can surely act now.
We will be in touch soon with additional actions that we can all take to protect wolves in the Northern Rockies and Colorado from similar acts of torture.
Thank you for your commitment to wildlife and wild places.
Sincerely,
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1. https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/04/08/gov-gordon-joins-outrage-over-torment-of-wyoming-wolf/
2. https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/natural-resources-energy/2024-04-08/wolfs-capture-alleged-abuse-by-wyoming-man-condemned-highlights-legal-limitations
3. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/10/wyoming-wolf-bar-animal-abuse
4. https://www.endangered.org/statement-of-endangered-species-coalition-on-todays-announcement-by-the-u-s-fish-and-wildlife-service-to-deny-federal-protections-to-gray-wolves-in-the-northern-rockies/
The post Wyoming Wolf Tortured and Killed. USFWS Must Act. appeared first on Endangered Species Coalition.