Wolves Should Be Hunted
The Grey Wolf was reintroduced in the United States in the mid 1990’s after years of extinction. In 1973 Northern Rocky Mountain wolf subspecies were listed on the endangered species list. In 1980 congress started talking about reintroducing the wolf back into the U. S. Since then this has been a heated debate. Animal rights activists were all for bringing the wolves back while many other opposed it. (Wolf Reintroduction: How the Wolves Came Back) The thing that the government forgot to think about was that they were reintroducing a wolf that was not native to the U.
S. and that this wolf was much bigger, aggressive, and used to much harsher weather conditions than the Timberwolves native to the U. S. , when they decided to introduce Canadian Wolves. Canadian wolves weigh from 160 to 180 pounds, they are huge killing machines. Upon reintroducing gray wolves they also promised that once the wolves reached a certain population, they would be hunted to keep the wolf population to a sustainable number. The government first reintroduced the Canadian Gray Wolves into the Yellowstone National Park and Idaho. They started with 35 Canadian Gray Wolves.
They said their plan was to increase the wolf population to 300 and to at least 30 breeding pairs across Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. The government then promised that states that were forced to accept wolves would be able to manage them once they reached a healthy breeding stock and were settled. The Government said that the reason for the reintroduction was to control the Elk population that had grown out of control in the Yellowstone National park. (Harkings, 2009) They argued by bringing a natural predator back into the ecosystem that this would take care of the over population of elk naturally.
They said that the wolves would come in and take out the elk that were sick and failing. In the beginning this worked, however when the elk number were back to where they should be and the wolf number and packs grew, the government failed to let the state start managing them as they had promised before. This has brought much turmoil with the ranchers and sportsmen. The Governments plan worked so well that when the Canadian Wolves who are very territorial, spread into the small population of Timberwolves, they took over pushing the few native wolves out of the area killing them.
The Federal Government’s Biologists failed to mention that this could happen. The wolves very quickly began to form packs and multiply. A typical breeding pair of wolves will have two litters of pups a year and with each litter they have up to twelve pups. This is the reason the wolf population has grown out of control. According to Idaho Fish and Game Idaho currently has 846 wolves in 88 pack’s and 39 of them are “breeding packs”The Canadian Wolves are now threatening healthy elk and deer. (Harkings, 2009) The elk and deer populations are now dwindling due to more harsh winters and wolves.
They are also killing rancher’s livestock and putting rancher’s well-being at stake. Wolves have been proved to kill not only for food but for sport. For every one animal they kill to eat they kill three more just for the fun of it. Biologists call this “sport-reflex killing” or “lustful killing” the Canadian Gray wolves are killing machines (Harkings, 2009). They have also been proven to kill people’s dogs just for the fun of it. A wolf typically consume 16-24 hooved animals a year for consumption but that number must be doubled for all the animals that the wolf kills for sport and leaves left to die or rot. Harkings, 2009) The forests are being littered by carcasses left by the wolf. Wolves will wait until an elk, deer, or moose cow are giving birth and kill both the cow and the calf. Either eating them or leaving them and moving on to the next kill. They will dig up hibernating bears and kill them for both food and sport. When wolves are hunting in packs they are afraid of nothing. They will attack adult male grizzly bears and adult male moose. They are fearless and the only predators wolves have are humans. (Wood, 2005) That is why we need to start controlling their population before we have no hooved animals left.
Wolves are such big killing animals that when they have taken out a species they will turn on their own and kill them for food. Wolves will stop at nothing they are killing machines that have to be stopped and their populations must be maintained before they become more out of control. Wolves have become so bold they have now been videoed stalking hunters in Northern Idaho. They also tried to attack a woman who was walking up her driveway. I would hate to think what would have happened if she didn’t have her cell phone and help hadn’t arrived soon enough.
They are becoming more and more fearless every day and are coming closer and closer to humans. We not only have to put the fear back into wolves for our own safety but for theirs. If we do not do something now wolves are going to diminish all of our wild hooved animals and start moving closer and closer to captivity. They are fearless and will stop at nothing. That is why we need to start taking control of the wolf before the wolf takes control of us. We have to start hunting wolves and maintaining their populations before these murderous creatures takes over.
So go out get a tag and today and kill a wolf.
Works Cited
- Harkings, D. (2009, June). Idaho Home to over 4,000 of the Biggest Baddest Wolves in America. Retrieved November 15, 2011, from http://proliberty. com/observer/20090623. htm
- Wolf Reintroduction: How the Wolves Came Back. (n. d. ). Retrieved November 13, 2011, from http://www. class. uidaho. edu/kpgeorge/issues/wolves_reintroduction/reintroduction_question. htm
- Wood, K. (2005, January 29). The Truth About Those Canadian Wolf “Re”introductions. Retrieved November 13, 2011, from http://rliv. com/wolf/DailyChronicalTruth. pdf
