Wyoming says wolf poacher can continue doing business as an outfitter and hunting guide
Earlier this year, Taylor was found guilty in federal court on the charge of poaching. Photo by Spirit Wolf Photography, Nancy Greifenhagen/Alamy Stock Photo
In a troubling lapse of moral accountability, a Wyoming state board will allow a man who killed a female wolf in the Grand Teton National Park and then dragged her body out of the park in violation of federal law to continue operating as a professional outfitter and hunting guide in the state.
In August, the Wyoming Board of Outfitters and Professional Guides decided to grant Brian Taylor, a self-avowed “wolf hater”, with a conditional one-year license, and denied a complaint the Humane Society of the United States filed in May asking that the board withdraw Taylor’s license for his crime of wolf poaching, which occurred in December 2018.
Earlier this year, Taylor, who also sits on the board of a local non-profit, the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association, was found guilty in federal court on the charge of poaching. Yet, despite the severity of his crime, the federal court gave him a mild rebuke: a $5,000 fine and suspension of his wolf-hunting privileges for a year. And the board itself subsequently denied our complaint and only reprimanded the convicted poacher, giving him a conditional permit to operate for the next year.
There’s something wrong when a crime that so clearly violates a foundational federal wildlife law is so lightly punished. The penalties imposed fell far short of those outlined under the Lacey Act, which prohibits the discharge of a weapon and killing of wildlife in a national park, along with the transportation of the animal’s body outside a national park. Under the Lacey Act, a single violation is punishable by a maximum fine of $10,000 and up to one-year imprisonment.
The HSUS’s own investigations and review of documents the Jackson Hole News & Guide obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that Taylor did not just violate federal wildlife law while on National Park Service lands, he also violated state law and regulations governing the conduct of professional outfitters.
Taylor, as a professional outfitter, had a duty to know the laws concerning wildlife hunting in the state, and Wyoming’s failure to vigorously prosecute him sets a dangerous precedent. That he can continue doing business as usual is unthinkable to most Americans. A poacher who breaks the law and deprives other Wyoming residents of the pleasure of seeing a protected animal in a national park should receive a punishment commensurate with his misconduct. We will continue to press for greater accountability in this case. For the sake of its wildlife, and as matter of moral and legal principle, Wyoming needs to reconsider its decision.
This whole sordid business sickens me. I have no doubt that the Wyoming state board that decided to give this psycho a “get out of jail free” pass is manned by his hunting buddies.
Anyone who kills a wolf— especially illegally in a national park— deserves to have his guns taken away and made to sit in prison for a while and think about why he has no compassion or respect for wildlife.
Could not agree with you more. All our Government services intended to protect the wildlife and environment are so stinking dirty. Have been for years just as Congress is as well. In the back pocket of these special interest groups getting their palms greased to look the other way. They are maggots, all of them.
Exactly how I feel!
Ya no mas violencia hacia los animalitos por favor
this is gross. how dare this person kill an animal. carole block
Take this mans licence away. He breaks the rules and you reward him.
“In a troubling lapse of moral accountability, a Wyoming state board will allow a man who killed a female wolf in the Grand Teton National Park and then dragged her body out of the park in violation of federal law to continue operating as a professional outfitter and hunting guide in the state.”
Hmm, it seems that since Brian Taylor is an animal serial killer psychopath, he is in the right business. Anti animal cruelty laws exist in all 50 states. BUT!, if you are in the business of killing animals for fun, entertainment, and PROFIT, then the law is on your side.
Animal serial killers, relax. Governments are complicitors to your vicious, evil, behavior. They don’t want to be guilty of standing in the way of anyone PROFITING, even, as in this case, there are innocent, defenseless victims.
“In fact, if one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and, once large sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people.”–Ruth Harrison, Animal Machines
BTW, how many of those judges are also animal serial killers?
HUMANS: The most dangerous predators on earth!
I wonder if Wyoming’s wildlife officials have any idea how deparaved and pathetic they appear to the those of us in the West and beyond who still care about the rule of law and protecting wildlife from the ignorance of people like Taylor.
What makes this despicable person think he has the right to shoot an animal from a National Park that belongs to everyone and then get off with nothing without a single thing happening to him. Where are our law enforcement agencies? Where is the Fish and Game, wildlife rangers that are hired and paid by our tax dollars to protect our wildlife? Our world has become a place for vile, ignorant people that have no regard for God’s creations and will one day pay the price for the actions? Not only is there a God, but there is also the devil waiting to take his followers to a place not so full of love. Karma is lurking in the background.
Persons that allowed this travesty to continue should be prosecuted in addition to this murderer. What a sickening mindset these people have.