While we and so many other wildlife enthusiasts and advocates have not forgotten the young wolf in Wyoming who endured horrific and prolonged suffering earlier this year, members of the Wyoming Legislature’s Treatment of Predators Working Group seem to want to do the bare minimum, hoping to be perceived as addressing such cruelty and so free to move on.
The group was formed by the legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee, tasked with identifying legislative options to discourage, going forward, the kind of behavior that led to this wolf’s tormenting and death. This was after the story made headlines all over the world. A reminder about what happened that led to such widespread public outcry: A man ran over this wolf with a snowmobile, taped her mouth shut, placed an electric collar on her neck and paraded her around a bar for hours before shooting her.
The working group met for the second and final time last week, unanimously supporting a draft bill. Sadly, the proposed legislative action would do nothing to prevent the immense and obvious cruelty of using snowmobiles and other motorized vehicles to run over any animal classified as a “predator” within Wyoming. In Wyoming, coyotes, jackrabbits, porcupines, raccoons, red foxes, skunks and domestic cats considered “stray” are considered “predators” statewide, and in 85% of the state, so are wolves. This bill would merely require that after running them down people “immediately use all reasonable efforts” to kill the animals. Wolves and coyotes are the most frequent victims run over by snowmobiles.
In the working group discussions, certain conflicting moral intuitions about how people regard animals and the natural world came to the surface. For instance, one member of the working group asked that the public comment only on the proposed bill “and not comment on the ‘incident.’” Members also briefly discussed removing language related to snowmobiles and other motorized vehicles, which would have required that any person who injures or disables an animal classified as a predator in any manner to “immediately use all reasonable efforts” to kill the animal. However, the group quickly retreated from that discussion because that would entail that the bill apply to aerial gunning, another egregious common practice that involves gunning down animals from airplanes and helicopters. Members expressed concern that it would be unreasonable and inconvenient to require aerial gunners to land their planes and attempt to locate and kill the predators they injured or maimed.
And the very language used to describe the treatment of animals in these cases smacks of avoidance: In describing the activities of someone who uses 500-pound snowmobiles to run over and maim wild animals, working group members employed euphemisms like “take” and “dispatch” rather than “run over” or “kill.” While the original draft bill clarified that the “hunting, capture, killing or destruction” of a wild animal must be done in a “humane manner,” the working group removed the word “humane” from proposed bill language, claiming that the word “humane” is too broad and is not commonly understood.
That running down animals with snowmobiles or shooting them from aircraft even occur at all, let alone as common practices, makes discussions of marginal improvements to an inherently cruel set of practices somewhat absurd.
Undergirding the point of view in which such behavior toward wildlife is acceptable, theirs is an unsustainable and unjustifiable presupposition that perceives wild animals, particularly native carnivores, as enemies. Such a view begins by pitting predators against humans and our endeavors, such as farming, and concludes that these animals simply must be killed by any means necessary.
Yet scientific studies have demonstrated again and again that:
- conflicts between native carnivores, like coyotes and wolves, and cattle and sheep are already very rare,
- that killing native carnivores does not reduce conflicts, and
- that nonlethal deterrents, such as human presence, fencing, removing attractants, and light- and noise-emitting devices are much more effective at keeping cattle and sheep safe.
Quite simply, there are no scientific or ethical justifications for policies allowing the killing of animals like wolves and coyotes as a matter of routine practice in agriculture, and certainly none at all would apply in regard to snowmobiling. Decision-makers are using the pretext of protecting cattle and sheep to distract from the fact that many of the people engaging in this morally retrograde activity are doing it for fun.
But there are many others who will not stand for this kind of treatment of animals. A recent poll conducted by Remington Research Group for the Humane Society of the United States shows overwhelming voter disapproval of currently permitted methods for pursuing and killing wildlife in Wyoming. Among other findings, it shows that 71% of Wyoming voters, including majorities across all political parties and ideologies, believe the actions in the February 2024 wolf incident constitute animal cruelty.
Our staff joined hundreds of others in speaking out against this act at a meeting of the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission back in April and we will continue to fight for meaningful change, including the restoration of federal protections for wolves in Wyoming and the rest of the Northern Rocky Mountains.
Decision-makers in Wyoming have made it clear they only want to hear from people who live in the state. Thankfully, there are plenty of Wyomingites willing to speak out, because what happened to the wolf in Daniel, Wyoming, and what continues to regularly happen to animals classified as predators in the state, does nothing but glorify violence and divide communities. We are inspired and grateful to the many Wyomingites who have had the courage to speak out against this cruelty as well as local organizations like Wyoming Wildlife Advocates and the Wyoming Wildlife Campaign.
The Treatment of Predators Working Group is scheduled to present its draft bill to the full Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee on September 30. As the group deliberates about how this cruel story should end, we urge that there be some meaningful resolution, one that more fully reflects the many viewpoints of our society as it is now and as it aspires to be, not the perspectives of the few who delight in wielding absolute and tyrannical power over helpless animals. Rather than normalizing conspicuous acts of cruelty, they must shift their attention to legislation that protects wild animals, rather than throw in the towel at the treatment that predators typically suffer at human hands, as if we simply could do no better.
If you live or work in Wyoming, we strongly encourage you to attend that meeting and speak up for wildlife. For those who don’t live in Wyoming, you can still let decision-makers know you care by contacting Governor Gordon, the Wyoming Office of Tourism, the Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee and the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission.
Follow Kitty Block @HSUSKittyBlock.
