Wyoming Wolf War

It’s old news that the famous “Mollie’s Pack”, wolves who normally make their home inside Yellowstone National Park, wandered into and denned in Wyoming’s Shoshone National Forest where they are not protected over the summer. With Wyoming’s wolf season right around the corner, September 15th, tensions are running high and a lot of eyes are focused on northwestern Wyoming and the kick off of the Wyoming Wolf War. 

Animal rights activists and groups unsuccessfully petitioned the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish to protect this pack by closing the hunt in the area where the Mollies wolves are residing. One social media wolf activist even pledged a $10K bounty for information on hunters who kill one of the wolves, an offer that has since been rescinded. 

A Nevada hunter/rancher has openly vowed that when the season opens on September 15th the wolves will be legally harvested, especially the pack’s most famous member, wolf 1090F. 

It’s unlikely that the entire Mollie’s pack will be harvested as Wyoming Game and Fish has reduced the wolf harvest quota in the hunt area to only four wolves in light of Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem wolf population decline linked directly to an outbreak of distemper. However, the bigger problem for the WYGFD will be the attention these wolves and both the people hunting them and the people trying to stop the hunters bring. 

I don’t anticipate this to be a normal quiet wolf hunting season. Unfortunately, I think it’s going to get ugly and the potential for conflict between activists and hunters is high. I pray I’m wrong but I don’t think I am. 

What’s your take? Should the Mollie’s wolves be hunted or set aside and protected?