Emergency: Wyoming Wolves to be Shot on Sight

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A plan unveiled ast week by the State of Wyoming and the U.S. FIsh and Wildlife Service (USFWS) would allow wolves across most of the state to be shot on sight, without a permit and without limit. No protections for pregnant or nursing wolves, no protections for pups. Just a license to kill wolves across most of the state.

This inferior plan is by all accounts identical to those previously proposed by Wyoming which were--until now--found to be insufficient by the USFWS.

Tell Secretary of Interior Salazar that this unscientific shoot-on-sight "management" plan is unacceptable and ask that he use his power to force Wyoming to come up with a responsible, science-based management plan.

Subject:

Your Letter:

Dear Secretary Salazar,

I read with dismay the details of the proposed plan to manage wolves in the State of Wyoming.

The 30 year effort by the Fish and Wildlife Service to restore wolves to the region is a truly remarkable achievement in wildlife conservation, but any plan that allows wolves to be shot on sight and treated as a nuisance species is an unacceptable regression to the early 20th century policies that nearly wiped this species from the map.

I'm further disturbed to learn of attempts by Wyoming's Governor to usurp the Endangered Species Act by asking Congress to preclude judicial review of this plan. This is a reckless and imprudent precedent to set, in addition to being disastrous policy on its merits.

While we recognize that public hunting of wolves in Wyoming will likely be a regular component of wolf management, we would expect such hunting to be “fair chase,” well-regulated and science-based. The Wyoming plan of unregulated hunting ignores those precepts, and thus violates the sportsmen's own framework for hunting—the North American Wildlife Conservation Model.

I urge that you reconsider your declared support of this deeply flawed policy and use your power to force Wyoming to enact a management plan that would manage wolves like other trophy animals in the state—with regulated hunting seasons and quotas, scientific monitoring, while protecting pups, nursing females, and den sites.  Furthermore, the Department should oppose all efforts by Congress to short-circuit democracy by shielding its rules from judicial review.

Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,

Secretary Sally Jewell

Department of the Interior