Wolves in the Northern Rockies move closer to getting protections they desperately need
By Kitty Block and Sara Amundson
Wolves in Idaho and Montana have been subjected to increasingly aggressive killing since they lost their federal protections in 2011. Alamy Stock Photo
Wolves in the Northern Rockies may warrant federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last week, largely because of extreme wolf-killing laws recently passed in Idaho and Montana. The agency’s decision comes in response to a legal petition the Humane Society of the United States and the Humane Society Legislative Fund filed, in coalition with other conservation organizations, in May.
This promising progress gives us some hope that much-needed protections are on their way for these imperiled animals. The FWS will now begin a formal review process—collecting scientific and other information about the threats these wolves face—to determine whether to extend endangered species protections to wolves in western states. The no-holds-barred wolf slaughter sanctioned by Idaho and Montana make clear that this federal protection is essential to gray wolves’ survival in the region.
Wolves in these states have been subjected to increasingly aggressive killing since they lost their federal protections in 2011. In May, Idaho’s legislature passed a law that allows the state to hire private contractors to kill up to 90% of the state’s wolf population. The law also allows individual trophy hunters and trappers to kill as many wolves as they want using the most egregious methods, running them down with all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles and hunting them using bait and hounds. Wolf trapping is also now permitted year-round on private lands. And outside of the extreme suffering this causes ensnared wolves, such indiscriminate methods also put pets and other wild animals at risk of getting maimed or killed by traps.
Recent changes in Montana’s laws mean that about 85% of the state’s wolves are now in danger of being killed. New laws there allow the use of strangulation snares and the use of bait to hunt and trap wolves, as well as permitting night hunting. Another law brings back what is essentially a wolf bounty system that incentivizes hunters to kill wolves by reimbursing them for their costs. And while the state previously set strict quotas in areas bordering Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park to limit the killing of the wolves who live in and around these iconic natural landmarks, these quotas have now been eliminated. In short, Idaho and Montana have now joined Wyoming in allowing what amounts to unlimited and unregulated killing of wolves.
While the FWS’s determination that these destructive new laws may require federal intervention is an important step, it’s not fast enough. Wolves in Idaho and Montana are under attack right now. Idaho’s new law took effect on July 1, and Montana’s general wolf hunting season began on September 15. Wolves simply cannot afford to suffer through months of wanton slaughter while the FWS completes its review. That’s why our petition asked the agency to immediately restore endangered species protections to wolves in the region on an emergency basis.
We’re not alone in our view that emergency protection is necessary to ensure gray wolves’ survival. Dozens of American Indian tribes asked the Biden administration to restore protections on an emergency basis in the face of these virulently anti-wolf policies. Similarly, more than 50 conservation organizations sent a letter in support of our petition, urging the FWS to immediately protect wolves. And even Dan Ashe—who originally supported delisting wolves from endangered species protections back when he was President Obama’s FWS director—said Idaho and Montana’s laws amount to “ecocide.” He too is calling on the agency he once led to restore endangered species protections on an emergency basis.
Disappointingly, the FWS hasn’t yet heeded these calls. But we won’t give up in our fight for these iconic animals. We’ll continue to push the agency to immediately protect these wolves before it’s too late.
You can take action for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies by asking Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to immediately extend Endangered Species Act protections to these animals.
Sara Amundson is president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund.
Que Deus ilumine o coração do Secretário, para que impeça mais essa crueldade com os animais!
Cómo es posible que las autoridades de estos estados hayan dado luz verde a esta matanza cruel e indiscriminada, permitiendo que se cometan, contra estos icónicos animales, las peores atrocidades con el fin de asesinarlos y poniendo en serio riesgo la supervivencia de estas comunidades y de los ecosistemas en que viven. La sabiduría de los pueblos originarios de Norteanérica debe ser un ejemplo de cómo actuar en el futuro, la nación más desarrollada del mundo no puede avalar ni menos justificar este atentado contra la vida salvaje, ojalá todas las personas de bien que se están manifestando sean escuchados y puedan ayudar a cambiar estas nefastas políticas de exterminio y crueldad…
Tenemos que aprender a cuidar y respetar a los animalitos y a los seres vivos no podemos permitir mas abuso a la naturaleza y a los seres vivos
The pervasive killing of wolves is not the answer! It’s inhumane!
The Biden administration has been such a disappointment on this issue of getting the gray wolves back on the ESL. I had such high hopes that Deb Haaland would get this done but have been very disappointed. It was trump that wrongly removed them from ESL protections but the fact the Biden administration has not reversed this is a disgrace on this administration.
Well, this only goes to show what kind of inhuman people are calling the shots. Anyone that would that thinks it’s okay to take a life in order to have the so-called trophy isn’t working with a full deck. And these agencies that give their permission to such ghastly slaughter need to have more human representation in those jobs because the ones that are in these jobs are not only disgusting questionable human beings, but they have no business in the job. These victims (wolves) are living breathing lives, and to slaughter them in the way that these killers have been allowed to do is criminal and they should all be arrested and prosecuted for felony animal abuse. The world has gone mad, if you sit by and quietly allow things like this to continue without objecting then you too are as guilty of these crimes as the sorry excuses for human beings that are doing them. Don’t sit by and let this go on, take a stand, do something, mainly get these people out of those jobs, they shouldn’t have them, they are way too cruel and inhuman.