A Sentience Article from All-Creatures.org

How Do Colorado's Wolves Feel Being Treated as Unfeeling Objects?

From Marc Bekoff
October 2024

If wolves are going to be punished and made an example of for finding the wrong food source, why bring in more? It’s a double-cross that cannot be defended scientifically, ethically, or using a healthy dose of commonsense. People like me who want wolves on Colorado’s magnificent landscapes want wild wolves who are allowed to live wild wolf-appropriate lives, not severed family units, punished for doing things that wolves evolved to do. 

Image: patrice schoefolt, Pexels

Wolves are fully sentient animals with rich and deep emotional lives and their point of view about what is happening to them must not be categorically dismissed as if they don't care.

Redecorating natural landscapes with live and caring animals is far more difficult and "personal" than redecorating homes with couches and chairs.

Feelings matter because animals care about what happens to them and the misguided dismantling of Colorado's only breeding wolf pack by Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) disregards their physical and psychological wellbeing. I can't find a single statement from CPW that reflects any compassion for the lamentable destruction of this wonderful family of wolves and the individuals who comprised it while they are planning to bring in around 15 more wolves in a few months.

The major losers in Colorado's reintroduction snafu were the wolves themselves.

The unfortunate demise of the Copper Creek wolf pack

Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) recently dismantled the Copper Creek pack—a family of wolves consisting of the father, mother, and their five children—because they denned on the land of a rancher who did little to nothing to deter them from eating his cows and sheep. The father wolf died after being trapped and held in a cage and the other five individuals—mom and her four children—are being held captive in an unknown location.

And just this week, we learned that there was another pup who CPW missed and who has been on their own since their family was demolished by CPW's ill-fated efforts using leg-hold traps. They had to fend for themself and there's little doubt they were extremely stressed while on their own as would be their domestic canine relatives who we call dogs.

These parents were the first breeding pair in the state and they and their children represent the DNA of Colorado’s future wolves. Doing their best to survive, they discovered the rancher’s food animals were an easy option—basically “room service”—compared to hunting wild prey. (1)

CPW’s “trap and relocate operation” failed the wolves in three ways. It represents a failure by its very nature: uprooting and traumatizing the lives of the pack members—just for being the wolves who people wanted to once again roam Colorado's magnificent terrain.

1. Science: Science shows that interfering in the lives of these animals was most likely going to have serious negative consequences, and it did—the father died after being captured and the rest of his family are being held in captivity. Even if some or all of this captive pack are released at a later date, experts fear it likely won’t be an easy transition back to the wild.

Of course, there is hope that those of us in the scientific community are wrong. But one thing is certain: had CPW used the “best available science,” something they claim to do, it would not have engaged with or captured the wolves at all, instead allowing them time to adapt to their new home with nearby ranchers doing their part to employ sensible nonlethal deterrence measures. If only, then this founding group of wolves would have been celebrated rather than scorned and ill-treated.

Interfering in the lives of this family group also would have been discouraged had those responsible for the wellbeing of the wolves paid any attention to what scientific research has shown us about the emotional lives of these sentient beings—what they need to thrive among themselves and in the presence of humans with whom they are trying to cohabit. [The go-to popular books on wolf behavior and emotions are those by wolf expert Rick McIntyre. (2)]

CPW also ignored the possibility that the male died after being caught in a leg-hold trap and held in a cage because he was highly stressed and already was suffering from an injured leg.

2. Ethics: Wolves are sentient beings, not merely objects to be moved here and there as if they aren’t impacted by what happens to them. Surely their being trapped and relocated and the loss of their father and mate wreaked havoc with how they feel and deeply compromised their individual wellbeing.

3. Commonsense: It was never the intent of anti-wolf ranchers to go along with the reintroduction, regardless of how often CPW stepped in to offer assistance and how much it offered to pay in compensation. Within days of removing the Copper Creek pack, the same ranchers who demanded their removal began complaining that relocation wasn’t enough.

Would you do it to your dog? Dogs share a common wolf ancestor and have wolf genes and wolf-like neural pathways in their brains. Commonsense and science mandate that if dogs have rich and deep emotional lives which of course they do, so too do wolves. If you wouldn't do something or allow it to be done to a dog, why would you do it or allow it to be done to a wolf? Focusing on dogs, sadly, puppy mills are still legal in Colorado and numerous other states.

Science shows that the treatment of wolves, dogs, and other animals requires a mindset that incorporates their point of view and feelings

There’s no doubt that each member of this family group has suffered greatly by having their family uncompassionately dismantled by CPW. We now know there is a plan to bring in around 15 more Canadian wolves in a few months. We must not lose sight of the fact that all this easily avoidable turmoil was the result of only two wolves mating to form a pack of seven. It’s not unreasonable to wonder how CPW and ranchers will better prepare to meet the moment when Colorado’s wolf population doubles or triples? Among many wolf advocates, the trapping and relocating also was a failure for the precedent it set.

If wolves are going to be punished and made an example of for finding the wrong food source, why bring in more? It’s a double-cross that cannot be defended scientifically, ethically, or using a healthy dose of commonsense.

People like me who want wolves on Colorado’s magnificent landscapes want wild wolves who are allowed to live wild wolf-appropriate lives, not severed family units, punished for doing things that wolves evolved to do.

It's not "radical" to argue that other animals experience deep and rich emotional lives. It's the right and ethical road to travel. Similar to their canine companion descendants with whom millions of people share their homes and hearts, science shows what wolves, dogs, and many other animals think and feel about their physical and emotional wellbeing matters to each and every individual and must be factored into how we choose to interfere in their lives. The life of each and every individual and what they're feeling matters.

References

1) For more information, see: Colorado's New Wolves: Why Was This Pack Decimated?; Colorado's New Family of Wild Wolves Must be Celebrated; Colorado Wolves: Hyped Media Derails Neighborly Coexistence; KGNU Interview: https://howonearthradio.org/archives/9710 (CPW did not reply to their request for an update on the fate of Colorado’s newly captured wolf family/); Colorado Wolves Receive Mixed Hellos and Muddy Media; Wolf Packs Suffer When Humans Kill Their Leaders; Why We Misjudge Wolves, Bears, and Other Large Carnivores; The Hidden Slippery Slopes of Animal Reintroduction Programs; Do Individual Wolves Care if Their Species Is on the Brink?; LET'S KEEP COLORADO'S WOLVES OUT OF THE SPOTLIGHT; The Perks of Appreciating Wild Neighbors as Sentient Beings. More details can be seen here: Why was Colorado's Precious, Promising First Wolf Pack Decimated?

2) McIntyre, Rick. Thinking Like a Wolf: Lessons From the Yellowstone Packs. Greystone Books, 2024. (Also see: The Story of Yellowstone Wolf 8: From Underdog to Alpha Male, The Reign of Wolf 21, Yellowstone's Benevolent Alpha Male, The Redemption of Yellowstone's Renegade Alpha Wolf 302, and The Power and Legacy of Yellowstone's Alpha Female Wolf 06.)

Bekoff, Marc. The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy―and Why They Matter. New world Library, 2024.

Mohr, Kylie. A mixed report for Colorado’s wolves. High Country News, September 19, 2024.

Ordiz, A. et al. Large carnivore management at odds: Science or prejudice? Global Ecology and Conservation, 2014. 

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Posted on All-Creatures.org: October 10, 2024
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