With less than 700 wolves across the span of 96,720 sq miles, how could anyone claim that they need to be hunted? After 50 years and millions of dollars of tax payer money and donations made to repopulate the wolves, the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, Department of Natural Resources, and other organization like them, are now trying to hunt down the very wolves we fought so hard to bring back from the brink of extinction.
The Wolf Management Law Does Not Create A Wolf Hunt
This law authorizes the Natural Resources Commission to create one, the law itself does not actually set wolf hunting in stone. But that does not change the danger of an impending wolf hunt! A simple search on the internet shows that most people who support the Wolf Management Law also support wolf hunting. Most of those people in fact demand a wolf hunt and claim that hunting wolves is their "right". A wolf hunt can be set in motion as early as next year (perhaps earlier if the matter is pushed hard enough), that is unnerving news! All other states that allow the hunting of wolves originally started their war against wolves under the guise of "wolf management". But what started out as wolf management in several anti-wolf states, it quickly turned into wolf hunting, wolf trapping, hounding wolves, even the legal right to shoot wolves on sight for no reason. Can anyone honestly believe that Michigan will not follow suit?
No Valid Argument For Wolf Hunts
Pro-wolf hunters can try to rationalize wolf hunting based on the fact that Michigan de-listed wolves in 2011, but the world is well aware of the fact that they were taken off prematurely. Not only is a small population of only 700 indicative of a species that needs protection, but, they roam less than 5% of their original range across the US mainlands. This is a species that is clearly in dire need of being re-listed.
Pro-wolf hunters can try to rationalize wolf hunting based on the claims that high numbers of 'livestock kills' have occurred, but, the problem with that argument is that in 2012 there were only 4 recorded livestock deaths related to wolves in the state of Michigan.
Pro-wolf hunters' main argument for the rationalization of wolf hunting is for sport. A majority of pro-wolf hunting Michigan residents claim that it is their "right" to "harvest" this "natural renewable resource". The idea that people think an innocent animal is disposable and renewable is quite disturbing. Those are just terms that glorify the bloody truth.
Pro-Wolf Hunters Have Hidden Agendas
It is common knowledge that wolf hunters are targeting predators needlessly in an attempt to boost the number of hunting license sales. With less predators to kill the deer, elk, or other ungulates, populations grow larger and larger, allowing more and more hunting profits. This is a viscous cycle that must not be allowed into full fruition.
Lower ungulate numbers mean that game managers are often forced to offer less hunting permits for hunters. This, in turn, means less hunting license revenue for the Department of Natural Resources. Years of budget cuts, low license fees, decreasing license sales and rising inflation have reduced the DNR’s spending power by about 47 percent in the last decade. It's obvious that the DNR is desperate for money, and while that may be unfortunate, they should find better ways of making money than preying on animals, that clearly need federal protection, with guns from safe distances.
We Need Wolves
Wolves prey primarily on the old, sick, and weak. Hunters prey primarily on the healthy and prime aged. Those two statements right there say a lot about why we need wolves. Because not only will the depredation of wolves eventually lead to the over population of ungulates it can also lead to the spread of disease within those species. As the weak and sick are allowed to live and the healthy and prime aged are killed off, dangerous repercussions will have to be faced. It takes one incident a balanced ecosystem to send the rest of it spiraling down.
Taking in mind that the wolves prey primarily on the weak this bears to thought the very real fact that in doing so they are strengthening the ungulates population immensely. Not only that but when wolves hunt regularly over certain ranges it causes the ungulates within those ranges to travel around more which prevents over grazing.
Over grazing can be a big problem and is not easily fixable once the damage has been done. Without wolves there to stop that from happening, and with the potential of artificially boosted ungulate populations, how long before over grazing affects more than just the wildlife and starts affecting humans?
While wolves help prevent over grazing this also enables other species of animals, insects, fish, birds, and plants that are beneficial to grow and thrive. To name a few- some of those species are beavers, otters, kelp; but the list goes on and on.
The Reality of Wolf Hunting
Wolf hunting doesn't
usually just consist of going out, shooting a wolf and killing it, and dragging it home. Not only does it take most people more than one shot to kill a wolf, but, a new trend has appeared in the pro-wolf hunting community around the US. This trend is called "the gut shot". Wolves are purposely shot in the gut so that they run off and die in the woods leaving the corpse to be collected later by hunters undetected so they can save their tag for another kill. (Click
here for more info)
The most skin crawling part about the needless slaughter of these beautiful animals is the smile on the peoples faces in all of the "trophy" pictures you can find online. It's not uncommon to find pictures where the wolf is still alive and is close to death, unable to move- whether from fear or extent of injuries is unknown.
Other bothersome realities of the wolf hunt happen when after a "good haul" pro-wolf hunters get together and take pictures of the dead wolves together, heaped in a pile of blood and cruelty. Almost as if to say "this is war".
One can often visit wolf hunter pages and they usually consist of vulgar and downright mean people who boast of the thrill of watching their kill die slowly. Some even go into gory detail about what they do afterwards and joke about it as if their cruelty is acceptable in anyway. (Click
here for pictures-
warning graphic content!)
Legally Condoning Unneeded Inhumane Practices
While most pro-wolf hunters may be convinced that all of us anti-wolf hunters are also anti-hunting all together- this stereotype is widely untrue. Very few of us will argue with the very real scientific logic of properly handled (and truly needed) depredation hunting. If there really was a predator out there that was decimating ungulate populations past repair, killing hundreds of family pets, and needlessly attacking people unprovoked, most of us wouldn't complain if the species were subjected to a carefully planned depredation hunt. It would be very sad and even heart breaking, but it would also be a necessity.
What is not necessary is the hunting down of a species that clearly needs federal protection to keep it from falling to the brink of extinction, again. What is not necessary is all of those terrible realities associated with the hunting of these creatures that scientists have repeatedly proven are important to our ecosystem, and, even to our daily lives. What is not necessary is a government sanctioned surgical Hitler like strike against a species that is so defenseless and so important. It is in wide agreement amongst people across the world that all of the "reasons" associated with attempting to hunt wolves anywhere in the United States are both bogus and belligerent.
It's a sad message to children when their government legalizes barbaric practices that are proudly displayed picture by picture, gut shot by gut shop, trap by trap, all over social media and television as an "achievement". Depredation hunting is supposed to consist of limited numbers of people, killing limited numbers of problem species, in concise and humane ways only as needed, with actual proof (not botched reports given by unnamed scientists). An open to the public hunting season is something entirely different.
If You Educate Yourself It Becomes Obvious
Many wildlife biologists recognize that keeping the wolf population up is a matter of importance. Removing the protection of Michigan's wolves can and more than likely will eventually lead to a trophic cascade. That is not something to be taken likely. A trophic cascade is "an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators and involving reciprocal changes in the relative populations of predator and prey through a food chain, which often results in dramatic changes in ecosystem structure and nutrient cycling." For anyone who couldn't swallow that definition it means
bad news. And yet despite all of this information, those who argue the importance of killing wolves keep claiming that their wants are all "scientifically sound" or "sensible and science-based". But for some reason their number of supporting sources generally seem to pale in comparison (and credentials) to the opposing side.
Tourist Rates
Tourist rates will assuredly go down if the wolves are allowed to be hunted. Each state that has allowed the hunting of wolves will slowly over time and eventually more dramatically, see a difference in tourist rates and the profits that come from them. It's plain and simple math. Millions of people around the world are against wolf hunts and will chose not to willingly endorse/contribute to/visit areas of tourist attraction that legally condone to the destruction of an intensely needed and widely loved species.
If you ever need proof just surf the internet for a little while. Take facebook for example (one of hundreds of websites that exhibit this trend): if you compare the numbers of pro-wolf hunt to anti-wolf hunt groups/fanpages/causes and their followers you will see clearly which side has more support. Those that advocate for the protection of wolves far surpasses those that don't- by millions.
The Michigan United Conservation Clubs website
www.mucc.org is a great example. There was a poll on their home page read as follows "Do you think wolves should remain listed as a game species in Michigan?" As of 03/07/13 10am EST the results were: Yes (399) votes, No (2,710) votes. By the end of the poll there were almost 4,000 no's, and under 600 yes's. You can attempt to e-mail thr DNR to ask them what the final results were- but they'll just ignore you too. It should be clear that anti-wolf hunting support outnumbers pro-wolf hunting support by a land slide. Putting the wolves on the gaming species list will clearly come with big costs.
- Krys, PAW: Protect America's Wolves
sign the petition that is collecting voices of those who are outraged: http://www.causes.com/actions/1737407-stop-the-slaughter-of-wolves-in-michigan-before-it-starts
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