A BLOODY MASSACRE: New Idaho law allows killing up to 90 percent of state’s wolves
The law provides funding for hunters as reimbursement for expenses accrued for killing wolves, a return to the bounty-hunting system that led to the near-elimination of wolves.
DOUGLAS MAIN: Idaho lawmakers have passed a bill aimed at killing the majority of the state’s wolves, which gets rid of most limits on hunting the predators. It represents the most sweeping expansion of wolf hunting in the state, and has drawn outrage from scientists, conservationists, and even pro-hunting groups. The act, SB1211, was signed into law on May 5 by Republican Governor Brad Little and will go into effect within months.
It will allow hunters and private contractors to kill 90 percent or more of the state’s wolves, which number around 1,500 at last count. The decision comes just months after the species was removed from the U.S. Endangered Species Act, though wolves in the Northern Rockies have been delisted since 2011. The move threatens to partially undo decades of intense efforts—costing tens of millions in taxpayer dollars—to recover wolves in the region…
The act will allow for wolves — animals which many in the state perceive as harmful to livestock and elk — to be hunted just about any way, including being shot from airplanes, helicopters, ATVs, and snow machines. Baiting and night hunting with spotlights will be permitted. It allows trapping and snaring wolves on private property year-round, and each hunter can purchase an unlimited number of tags for killing the predators.
The act paves the way for $300,000 in state funds to go specifically toward killing wolves that prey on elk, an annual increase of $190,000. This is an addition to more than $500,000 the state earmarks toward killing wolves that attack livestock. Some of this money can be given to individuals as reimbursement for expenses accrued killing wolves, which many critics see as a return to the bounty-hunting system that led to the near-elimination of wolves from the Lower 48 in the early 20th century…
The act is controversial for many reasons, says Garrick Dutcher, research and program director for Living with Wolves, an Idaho-based conservation organization. Not only will it expand killing of wolves in their dens, including pups, the legislation allows hunters unfettered right to set traps and snares on private property year-round, which can be lethal to other wildlife—not to mention humans and their pets.
But the bill is supported by most ranchers, who are generally hostile to wolves… but in fiscal year 2020, wolves likely killed 102 cattle and sheep, according to state investigators. That works out to about one in 28,000 of the state’s 2.8 million total cattle and sheep… Over the last few years, hunters in Idaho have legally killed about 500 wolves annually. SOURCE…
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