the Outhouse door…
Last night I was changing the newspaper at the bottom of my bird’s cage and I ran across an article in Bonner County’s The Daily Bee entitled Wolf Hunt Foes Howling Mad. The article was a few weeks old, but the issue is ripe today. It was written about a pro-wolf rally held in Sandpoint on September 2, 2012.
Even before the 1995 introduction of the Canadian Grey Wolves in Idaho, misinformation abounded about this controversy. And it is amazing how sound-bites rule the day and how many people in America are really media dupes and fluoridehead zombies. (A Harvard study just released showed a significant reduction in IQ in cities where fluoride was added to the municipal water supply: Impact of Fluoride on Neurological Development in Children, Environmental Health Perspectives, July 20, 2012, http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/features/fluoride-childrens-health-grandjean-choi.html)
The Daily Bee article starts out with a quote about Idaho wolf management from so-called “wolf advocate” Dr. Catherine Feher-Elston, “It’s killing, it’s slaughter, it’s not management. We have to fight to stop this.” She’s a doctor? Of what? Propaganda?
What is it that wolves do? They kill. In fact, the federally introduced Canadian Grey Wolves, do what is called “sport killing”. According to Jim Beers, a retired Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, the Canadian Grey Wolves will kill four animals for every one animal they eat. These wolves are killing machines. This was known about these wolves before they were introduced. Another known fact, according to Senator Crapo’s office, is that each Idaho elk is worth $8,000 to the Idaho economy. In these economic hard times we can thank the federal government for millions of dollars in wasted economic potential to our state because of these federal wolves and their sport killing.
Our hyphenated hero, Dr. Feher-Elston, also said “Half of our Northern Rockies wolves are dead in less than a year.” More propaganda! First of all, these are Canadian Grey Wolves. There is no such thing as “Northern Rockies” wolves. But the wolf lover wants there to be such a recognized subspecies known as the “Northern Rockies Wolf”, because that will give the wolf-lover advocacy groups additional legal advantages. However, Ms. F-E said nothing about the Idaho Timberwolf, whose numbers were recovering at the time of the Canadian Grey Wolf introduction.
The Idaho Timberwolf is the indigenous wolf to Idaho. The Canadian wolves were brought in as an “experimental species” as defined by the Endangered Species Act. According to the ESA, an experimental species cannot be introduced unless the in indigenous species is extinct. But in 1995, there was documented evidence that Idaho had 75 to 80 Timberwolves in central Idaho and north Idaho. (Kaminski and Hansen, Wolves of Central Idaho, Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, Univ. of Montana, 1984)
This evidence was ignored by the federal Fish and Wildlife Service; and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game turned a blind eye to this process. (Many observers think the Idaho Fish and Game Department was salivating over expected additional federal funds that they thought were going to flow into their department to manage the wolves.)
Why is this important to Idahoans? The Idaho Timberwolf ran around in packs of two; whereas the Canadian Grey Wolf has been reported to form packs of twenty and more. At maturity, the Timberwolf weighs about 90 pounds. Here in Idaho, we have seen Canadian wolves up to 178 pounds. And the Timberwolf did not indulge in “sport killing” and generally pursued small game like rabbits, raccoons and small deer. Lastly, the Timberwolf was fearful of humans; not so with the Canadian wolves.
At the time of the Canadian wolf introduction, the Idaho Timberwolf was a viable population, and was mandated by the ESA to be nurtured back to sustainable numbers. The introduction of the Canadian wolves into Idaho (Montana and Wyoming too) was illegal. And since it was done with knowledge of the existence of the indigenous Timberwolf, the introduction was also criminal.
Sportsmen in Idaho, and ranchers and farmers for that matter, could live with increasing numbers of Timberwolves. But life with the Canadian wolves has been a nightmare. Most likely all the Timberwolves are gone now, having been eliminated by the more aggressive Canadian Greys.
With a gun to the head of the Idaho Legislature, Idaho agreed to manage “recovered” Canadian Grey wolves at 150 wolves with at least 10 breeding pairs. The 150 number was increased from the original recovery study number of 100, which was first recommended. But what Ms. F-E and the feds won’t tell you is that they do not count wolves that are not in packs where there is a collared wolf. Nor do they count wolves in wilderness areas, nor lone wolves in or out of wilderness areas. Look at a map of Idaho. You’ll then realize that probably 40 to 50 percent of the Idaho Canadian Grey Wolves are probably in these wilderness areas. The actual number of wolves in Idaho is likely 2 or 3 or more times the “official” number of 800 or so.
There were claims at the Sandpoint rally that the current wolf management plan is “unsustainable”. However, these claims by the fluoridehead zombies that hunting wolves is “unsustainable” is absolute garbage. What is unsustainable is the impact of the wolves on our elk, deer and moose numbers. For the first time in recent memory, hunters can only hunt bull elk in North Idaho. Because of the impact of the wolves, today North Idaho hunters cannot take female elk. We can be certain a few Idahoans are going to go hungry as many Idaho families rely on the meat they get from each year’s elk hunt.
Today’s elimination of cow elk tags was predictable all the way back at least 10 years ago to anyone paying attention to wolf politics. The rank and file sportsman could have done a lot more to defend their interests and avoid the present catastrophe. Most sportsmen do little or nothing to defend their interests ignoring the admonishment, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”
The Canadian Grey Wolf is not an endangered species. We don’t need more of them. Across Alaska, Canada, Scandinavian, Russia and Kazakhstan there are several hundred thousand of these wolves worldwide. And when one studies the recorded history of wolves in the old world, there are voluminous records of wolf attacks on humans including hundreds of human deaths. So much for the wisdom of liberals and bureaucrats.
According to the Idaho Law, Idaho wildlife belongs to the state of Idaho. So how is it that we allow federal wolves to consume the majority of our wildlife resources? And how does this entire federal wolf program serve the primary mandate of government, as defined by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence to “secure our rights”?