The Idaho Senate approved a resolution Wednesday urging two state agencies that handle wolves and endangered species to work with other states on wolves. The resolution would apply to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, which has endorsed the measure, and the Office of Species Conservation.
Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, said Idaho agencies already consult with similar agencies in other states but could do more. “All the states that have wolves — and it’s going to increase — need to get together and talk,” he said. Schroeder said the conservation and environmental groups that sue Idaho and other states over wolf management issues are talking with one another. “There’s a whole lot of people that like to sue us over wolves,” he said. He also speculated that the reason behind lawsuits over wolves is because they share many characteristics with dogs, but said the state wants to treat them like other big predators. “Idaho has a good record of managing large carnivores — bears and cougars — and we want to do the same for wolves.”
The resolution calling for cooperation on wolves now moves to the House. Read IdahoReporter.com‘s first story on the resolution here. The text of the resolution is available here.
I live in the U.P of Michigan where they are now saying because we have about 600 wolves roaming 5000 square miles, its time to hunt them. If we only had 600 deer in the same area, no one would ever see a deer, and the hunters would be calling for a moratorium on hunting them. Of course, every person in the U.P. you talk to has seen several wolves. I doubt it. Most are seeing coyotes. You want to cull wolves, make part of the conditions of the permit that you will not go running to your nearest news organization to get your picture taken with the big, bad, wolf. By the way, coyotes have killed people many times in the United States compared to maybe one at the paws of a wolf, and we have a season on coyotes, guess shooting a wolf will be more macho. Finally, we let the DNR in Michigan control the deer population. This year, in the area I hunt, 3000 antlerless permits were available. I saw two does in 20 days of hunting, no wolf tracks. I would like to at least see an attempt by our so called conservationists to teach the public how to coexist with them, before we make them a sport. Marquette’s channel 6 news report referred to the culling of them being by fair chase. Up here, most deer hunters sit in a heated, wood hut with sliding glass windows peering out at their baited area to “bag their buck” and that is called fair chase. Please forward this to TV 6 News in Marquette Michigan for me. I don’t want to loose my comment.
Senator Schroeder means well and has a good idea about exchanging wolf management ideas. But he first must look within the Idaho legislature and see how many of his colleagues are bringing the wrath of environmentalists down on the state of Idaho by their foolish meddling in wolf management. They must stop passing ridiculous bills that ooze of wolf hatred and animosity and stop pushing Idaho Fish and Game into doing non-science based wolf management. Only when politicians demonstrate some maturity to talk about wolves and drop this wolf hating and anti-fed mentality will people stop suing. Politicians have fueled the fire more than anyone. Stay out of it and let biologists do their jobs.
Bill Cook,
Coyotes have killed ONE person in the United States. A toddler. The coyote was food-conditioned.
Domesticated dogs, however, kill about 20 people a year.