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On a dark and snowy winter night last week near Bondurant, Wyoming a cruising pack of wolves mercilessly killed 19 elk in one single night. The argument that wolves only kill to eat was yet again debunked as pure myth by this wildlife atrocity. Very little was eaten from any of the dead and left to suffer near dead animals. Seventeen of the 19 elk were yearling calves, which represent a significant portion of the next generation of elk for this particular area. This is not the first time this type of killing spree has occurred on the Wyoming wintering grounds. The wolves continue to tear through our precious elk herds while those elk sit, vulnerable prey to the super predators, in belly deep snow with nearly empty stomachs, patiently waiting for the morning sleigh loaded down with winter relief.
A very sad situation indeed for Wyoming’s wildlife and residents, most of which enjoy the elk and the opportunity they represent to feed our resident families with high quality organic protein, rich with the nutrients that only the high country of such a great place can produce.
While 150 miles to the North in Absarokee, Montana a cousin pack to the Wyoming feed ground wolves takes down two pregnant angus cows in a rancher’s calving pasture right outside his home window. For this daring stunt, the Montana authorities recommend the possibility of a helicopter gun-down of the entire pack. Good for you Montana!
Even the USFWS knows that once a wolf pack learns to kill for sport and puts domestic stock on its list of prey, there is only one way to stop the devastation and that’s to fight fire with fire and a helicopter. The one thing some people in our country fail to realize is that it’s nearly impossible to reprogram a wild animal’s behavior. If a wolf or a grizzly bear kills a domestic cow, then cattle will now be viewed as a source of prey in that predator’s mind.
If you stop feeding Wyoming’s elk, they will die, plain and simple, period! Those elk have lost their ability to migrate up and over and out to the desert with the deer a long time ago.
It pisses me off to no end that in Montana the government will gun down an entire pack of wolves for killing two angus cows, while in Wyoming our wolves are allowed free reign to rip through our large ungulate herds like a chainsaw through butter and we, the sportsman of Wyoming, have to sit back and watch as our elk and moose herds are completely devastated nearly beyond repair. I realize there is a difference between elk and angus cattle, I get it, I come from a Wyoming ranch family. There is certainly a difference between public property (elk) and personal property (angus), I get that too. But, you know what? I am sick and tired of the spineless bureaucrats down in Cheyenne sitting on their hands, writing letters back and forth to the Federal USFWS pleading for relief from the wolf and grizzly bear only to get a letter back stating some meaningless, bureaucratic B.S. rule in the ESA for the excuse as to why nothing can be done. Enough is enough already!
The “Predatory Death Spiral” has arrived in Wyoming and the financial effects will be devastating to our Game and Fish Department. There is no fossil fuel industry to fall back on anymore folks. The federal government and its ridiculous regulations are about to rip the financial guts right out of our state!!! There isn’t enough action or Super Tags on the planet to stave off the financial destruction that is about to harpoon our Game and Fish Department’s budget. We need to do something now! A change in leadership is required.
If Colorado and Washington can thumb their nose at the Federal Government and legalize marijuana I don’t see why on earth we (Wyoming) cannot figure out a way to re-legalize the control of wolves. There are ways, trust me there are ways, just ask Governor Butch Otter of Idaho!!!!
Our state government has completely lost its spine and the rest of America, as we all know, seems to have lost its ever-loving mind.
Not to suggest anything “illegal” – but one could simply kill the wolves and bury the evidence. After all, the wilderness is a big place. At some point, the insanity of liberals has to be defied!
well said I could not agree more
You got it right, this article will make me renew my subscription to your magazine! You guys have the guts to demand change and that is admirable!
Proof that bringing back these predators is a mistake.
I attended a sportsman show here on the east coast in February and I asked an Outfitter from Montana about the pressure Wolves are putting on the Elk herds North of Yellowstone. His reply was yes they are there and hurting the herds and calving and cattle. But, he said a lot of Ranchers and others were practicing the “shoot, shovel and shut-up” to help thin the growing Wolf pack.
Well written Guy. I could not agree with you more and your read on the bureaucratic idiots and lack of common sense liberal judges who strike down professional management practices on these apex predators. Time for the people to do whatever is necessary to allow this insanity to continue. Besides the SSS practice we need to hopefully get some new people in Washington starting at the ballot box in November!
I, like you, am sick and tired of government eliminating commen sense!! Not just with wildlife, everything. What amazes me most is I don’t personally know anyone who agrees with them. I know a lot of people in these fifty states.
I’m with you Guys, politics and most of the folks that are suppose to work for the people who voted them into those spot don’t care one bit about sportsman’s or the people, only what can benefit them, Here in WA state just wait till theses damn wolves here go out of control it will be another Wyoming for sure, it’s total Bull.
Hold the wolf lovers accountable, post the names of the major wolf supporters, vote them out of office, eliminate political immunity, demand reparations for the wanton wast of our natural resource, charge each major contributor to the protection of a non native species the Canadian Grey Wolf.
I don’t live in A state where there are wolves… But if I did… I think I know how to control the problem…being in a younger generation, I never got to experience the hayday of the west when it comes to big-game hunting. It makes me angry that politics have turned a blind eye to the situation . they look very similar to coyotes don’t they?… Get my drift?
The federal government has proven it cannot be trusted in the management of our wildlife. I am in agreement with Guy here, and an advocate for state and local management of our wildlife, but also for the resources that sustain them. I feel it is inconsistent to conclude they are not competent to manage our wildlife and predators yet think we can trust Washington to best manage our wilderness resources. They will in time mess that management up as badly as they have the management of predators!
Kill them all, this sickens me. I knew when they reintroduced the wolf it would be bad. I am a 5th generation Wyoming boy (who happens to reside in FL). Forget the liberal pussies. Kill the wolves. Period.
Shoot, shovel and shut up. It’s the only way. The government and liberal turds will do everything they can to insure the destruction of our herds. Think about it, if there is no game to hunt why do we need our guns (in their minds). If we don’t have anything to hunt more people will willingly give up there guns which will make it easier for them to come after those of us who are still holding on to them.
Don’t blame the ‘liberal’ on this mess. Few of us ‘liberal’ hunters were in favor of the reintroduction of the wolf. “Most of the states that have wolves are governed by Conservatives.
That’s true John, but it was the liberal Clinton administration and Bruce Babbit in particular, that unleashed an unwanted predator from Canada. They released them in Yellowstone, and you know the rest of the story. I’m sure democratic hunters didn’t want them.
I believe this is a setup by t he ranchers and hunters!!
Ya know, there was a reason wolves were eradicated from the lower 48 back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. People think those old timey fools just went out and murdered all the wolves cause they were sadists and liked to kill poor little dog-like creatures [anyone who has stood next to a Canadian Gray Wolf knows it ain’t a dog] just for fun. Not so, folks. They did it because wolves hindered the progress of our great grand parents’ move to the west. There wasn’t room for the wolf pack and the human pack in the same areas. Wolves killed farm animals, period. The people could not survive if the wolf killed their milk cow and her calf, the sheep and the lamb, so the wolf had to go. They hired professional hunters and trappers and when the could, they poisoned the wolf using kills made by said wolf and when out on the range, the they shot them when they could. Until the poor little dog-creature was no more. At that point, our great great grandpa sighed as he sat on his porch and watched his cattle herd grow. Finally, the threat was gone. Now the coyote, cougar, and bear were the only threats and they weren’t nearly as terrible as the wolf.
Enter the “Conservationist.” “Let’s reintroduce the wolf into Yellowstone Park. There is plenty of land for them to roam free. Plus, they will keep down the number of ungulates that are eating up all the browse. And…we won’t have to send those awful rangers with their big guns into the park to ‘thin’ out the herds of elk and bison. [and give the meat to the poor]” The problem with that reasoning — and we all know it now — is that wolves don’t respect boundaries. They don’t recognize “no-go” zones. They breed and new packs are formed. It doesn’t take long till wolves are in places that folks never thought they would travel.
We here in Idaho saw wolves devastate the Locksaw and Selway areas. Elk that were in the thousands are now in the hundreds. Rancher’s stock became the ‘new’ prey animals. And our Governor said, No More, That’s It and created as season on them and let hunters hunt them and trappers trap them. They are not completely under control yet, but it is a positive move to make them manageable. Take heed Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and even California the wolf is in your back yard and you better make a plan or you will not see those lovely wild ungulates again.
People better believe it,because our wildlife will be no more.Here in California elk were planted and the herds doing well, then out of nowhere we have wolfs. It’s almost like now that they have a food base for them to get started will turn them lose right in the middle of their migration path. Where the wolf pack photo were taken here in California the deer numbers are not very good SO why would wolfs set up camp there . it’s surely not to eat deer. Just Saying
Randy, wolves are an equal opportunity diner. They love to eat elk [especially the Canadian Grays], but they also love to dine on beef, poultry, pork, goat, dog, cat, child. They like big game mostly, but when push comes to shove, they’ll eat anything digestible. The Elk in California will disappear just like the elk in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Soon the wolf will inhabit Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. The Roosevelt Elk is smaller than it’s cousins out here in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming so they’ll be good targets for the wolf. I’ve even heard of wolves dining on other animal’s kills so that those animals starve [i.e., cougar, bobcat, bear, eagles, coyote – but who cares about the yote]. The Greenies will tell you that the wolf enhances it’s environment — no, no it doesn’t. Because there are not the huge expanses of non-human areas, the wolf is forced to eat whatever it can to survive and, believe me, the wolf knows how to survive in tough environments. Keep an eagle eye out, Randy, Canis Lupus is headed your way.
Those 19 elk are a drop in the bucket. On average 22 ungulates die for each wolf each year. Given 2000 wolves in the greater Yellowstone area, that’s 44,000 dead elk, deer and moose every year. Those 19….they barely count.
That’s 19 I won’t get a crack at….that pisses me off.