Idaho Admits Secret Wolf Slaughter
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Center for Biological Diversity
February 2016

[NOTE from All-Creatures.org: The people behind slaughtering wild animals are the people who want to raise cattle and sheep for people to eat, and the people who want to have wild animals to hunt.]

The slaughter in the Clearwater comes as the number of wolves killed since Congress brought back wolf hunting across six states in 2011 has just topped 4,000 -- more than half of these in Idaho alone. Through concerted effort the Center and our allies have pared this hunting down to just two states, Montana and Idaho, but in those holdouts we're facing our most powerful opponents. The Idaho Legislature just budgeted another $400,000 to kill wolves in the next fiscal year alone.

The news out of Idaho is even more outrageous than we thought. Last week we reported the tragic aerial helicopter gunning and slaughter of 20 wolves in the rugged Lolo/Clearwater National Forest. Now we've learned that, according to Idaho Fish and Game's own press release, this massacre was intentionally kept quiet and carried out by none other than the federal government's secretive wildlife-killing arm -- cynically named "Wildlife Services." The kill order came from Idaho Gov. Butch Otter and his wolf-hating wildlife administrators in a misguided attempt to artificially hike up elk numbers for hunting.

Despite vocal public opposition and ample science showing that wolf culls in places like the Clearwater do not improve elk numbers, the ill-informed animosity toward these intelligent animals and their deeply bonded families never seems to let up. Wolves, who have complex emotional lives, grieve when members of their packs are killed. These deaths disrupt their tight-knit family groups, forcing young wolves to survive on their own. Without the pack structure they often turn to preying on livestock or pets out of desperation.

The Center for Biological Diversity is working around the clock to end these heartless slaughters and rein in out-of-control, far-right politicians like Butch Otter. You can make a difference with a contribution to the Center's Predator Defense Fund.

The slaughter in the Clearwater comes as the number of wolves killed since Congress brought back wolf hunting across six states in 2011 has just topped 4,000 -- more than half of these in Idaho alone. Through concerted effort the Center and our allies have pared this hunting down to just two states, Montana and Idaho, but in those holdouts we're facing our most powerful opponents. The Idaho Legislature just budgeted another $400,000 to kill wolves in the next fiscal year alone.

And the anti-wolf militants want to take their show on the road. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson recently introduced legislation in Congress to bring back wolf hunting in that state, and the Center just went to court to stop the loosening of protection for wolves in Oregon. It's taking everything we've got to fight this fight on a dozen different fronts. That's why we need you to sustain our work with a generous gift to the Predator Defense Fund.

The Center has been beating back wolf-killing plans from the Great Lakes to the Southwest for more than a quarter-century. Wolves are key to ecosystem health and balance in many of our last, best wild places, but they've been allowed to return to less than 10 percent of their historic homelands. Sadly it's too late for the Lolo wolves shot down last week. That's why our work won't stop until wolf families everywhere are safe from taxpayer-funded snipers like the ones up in the Clearwater. Our lawyers, scientists and organizers need your help to stop the killing.

Help us with a donation to the Predator Defense Fund today - visit Center for Biological Diversity.

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