Stephan: From 12 to 23, when I came out of the Army, where I had been a medic, and threw all of my guns into the sea, I was actively involved in target, skeet, and trap shooting, and was so good at it that the Army initially wanted to make me a sniper to which I would not agree. In that period of a little over a decade I never had the slightest interest in hunting, although spending time in the wilderness has been one of the great themes and passions of my life.
A shooter armed with a 30 ought 6 rifle and a scope, who knows what they are doing -- an amazing number do not -- is not engaged in sport. Hunters like the camaraderie, and the primordial time in the wilderness engaged in killing animals. Shooting a deer in the woods is not really more challenging than shooting a dog in your driveway, or a cow in a field. Shooting an animal like a tiger or a rhinoceros as the Trump sons like to do is, or ought to be, criminal and prosecuted with lengthy prison time.
The hysteria about wolves is just that hysteria and delusion. The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reported 2,835 cattle and 453 sheep killed by wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains (Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming) from an inventory of 13.6 million animals. More importantly, as the National Park Service has discovered, when wolves are reintroduced and protected, the entire ecosystem of the parks becomes healthier. They also learned that the wolves attack and kill the weak, and damaged animals in a kind of culling process.
We so desperately need to understand the matrix of life before the damage we have done is irreparable. This Trumpian cultist move in Idaho is the exact opposite of what is needed.
Gray wolfCredit: Shutterstock
Wildlife advocacy groups are sounding the alarm about a new “extermination” law in Idaho, signed this week by GOP Gov. Brad Little, that will allow hunters and private contractors to kill up to 90% of the state’s gray wolf population—about 1,350 animals.
“Backed by an array of misinformation and fearmongering, the state Legislature stepped over experts at the Idaho Fish and Game Department and rushed to pass this horrific wolf-killing bill,” said Andrea Zaccardi, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement.
“And Republican lawmakers have promised that this is just the beginning, even though the new measure would doom 90% of Idaho’s wolves,” Zaccardi noted. “We’re disappointed that Gov. Little signed such a cruel and ill-conceived bill into law.”
Before Little approved the measure, Fast Companyreported that “it’s one of a handful of Western states’ aggressive pushes to cull predator populations. But, this one goes a step further: hiring hitmen for wolves.”BREAKING: Idaho Governor Brad Little has signed a gray #wolf extermination bill into law […]
I think the term for wolves is “keystone animal,” though I’m not completely sure of my term. It’s a word for an animal species that keeps nature’s balance intact so that habitat isn’t ruined, herds don’t become too large for an area to sustain. If I have the correct word, most predators are keystone animals; a goodly number of them are required for a thriving ecosystem. You’re right, the lessons of balance are apparently lost on Idaho. What happens when the native and natural balance is upset? For plants, the Dust Bowl was one of the results. Natural grasses and native plants were removed, crops were planted instead, and the result was, of course, devastation. I’m hoping wiser stewards of the earth will prevail in Idaho. Sad for the animals in that park and sad that the state condones a nasty impulse like shooting from a plane.
I think the term for wolves is “keystone animal,” though I’m not completely sure of my term. It’s a word for an animal species that keeps nature’s balance intact so that habitat isn’t ruined, herds don’t become too large for an area to sustain. If I have the correct word, most predators are keystone animals; a goodly number of them are required for a thriving ecosystem. You’re right, the lessons of balance are apparently lost on Idaho. What happens when the native and natural balance is upset? For plants, the Dust Bowl was one of the results. Natural grasses and native plants were removed, crops were planted instead, and the result was, of course, devastation. I’m hoping wiser stewards of the earth will prevail in Idaho. Sad for the animals in that park and sad that the state condones a nasty impulse like shooting from a plane.