WOLF SLAUGHTER IN WISCONSIN—STUPID AND UGLY

During the February 2021 mating season for wolves in Wisconsin, over 1500 avid wolf hunters entered the wilds of the Badger State  and killed 216 gray wolves, in three days of bloodletting and infamy.  These sportsmen were legally permitted to use primitive leg hold traps, coursing packs of hunting dogs, and. your standard military style  high powered  rifles and shotguns.  So why are they so keen to kill wolves.? There’s nothing to put in the freezer!  No trophy antlers to hang on the wall. Oh, oh yes perhaps they can save a shaggy gray wolf pelt as some sort of a grisly trophy of what once was a beautiful, living creature——ugh!

The real “professionals” in the Badger State’s Wisconsin Department of  Conservation were expecting to “cull” / kill  about one hundred wolves, this season, but they did not reckon  with the massive enthusiasm for death from Wisconsinites with their guns, dogs, baits, set-traps, dead falls, snares, billy clubs, and what other death dealing mechanisms deemed OK for dispensing with wolves.  When after only about 60 hours of “hunting” these “wildlife scientists” finally (and belatedly) began to count up wolf kills, they realized too late they had a disaster brewing. Their state’s “sportsmen” were going to decimate a whole generation of Badger State wolves. It would be a repeat of last century’s Wisconsin wolf extermination (again!!!). At this point they had to call the hunt off, after three days of the week long hunt. But by that time instead of healthy, beneficial wildlife, they had 216 dead, decaying wolf carcasses scattered through the woods, nearly twice as many wolves were killed as were “desirable”  or expected. 

The real Wisconsinites-the Native American members of the  Ojibwa Tribe, can hunt wolves too.  But they wisely and humanely take their kill permits and bank them, to save the lives of  wolves they consider sacred animals symbols of the wild.  This might be a good idea to emulate for the majority of the humane, conservation minded folks of Wisconsin. All those folks that would like to protect the native wildlife of the Badger State  can simply apply for a wolf hunting permit each year and then tear them up or put them  away like the Ojibwa do.  

Furthermore, Wisconsin’s  so called sportsmen should not be permitted to hunt with packs of dogs, steel traps, and outdated and inhumane early 19th century killing methods. If they want to be called sportsmen instead a just killers, make a real sport of it. Give the wolves a decent chance at survival in the contest Such changes might just give the wolves of Wisconsin a better chance at life. Today all of the natural world and the wild things in it —particularly the gallant wolf, ultimate symbol of wilderness—are struggling desperately for survival in a world being massively altered and over populated by one very dominant species. To protect this declining, disappearing world we need the concerted efforts of all elements of this (often not too wise species) to act as smart conservators not destroyers.  Let’s stop doing stupid.

Such changes may do something to improve the now low  public opinion of Wisconsin too.