Here’s Why Wolf Advocates Are So Vehement

By Paul Collins

People often ask why wildlife advocates in Wisconsin fight so hard to protect the gray wolf. The answer is simple. We give our all for this species because no other animal on the planet is so demonized, lied about, and the subject of such unbridled hate from a vocal minority.

It is utterly shameful to see websites devoted to promoting the poaching, torture, and eradication of a wild animal that is only trying to survive. No other species is subject to a state agency putting a cap on their desired numbers. No other species has special interest groups devoted to their eradication and controlling the DNR, the governor, the Legislature, the Natural Resources Board, and the so-called “Conservation Congress.” No other species has zealot politicians that join in on the pro-poaching talk and host hate seminars disguised as “summits.”

Regardless of the federal listing status of the gray wolf (currently, the gray wolf cannot be legally hunted in Wisconsin because it is listed on the Endangered Species List), wildlife advocates have reason to be concerned.

We saw what happened from 2012 to 2014, when wolves were allowed to be killed via trapping, legal dog fighting, and with reckless kill “quotas” assigned that were exceeded each year.

Those that despise both the gray wolf and the wildlife advocates trying to defend them like to tell us that we only act based on “emotion” and not their hijacked version of “science.” Is hate not an emotion?

[Published in the Cap Times on March 8, 2017]