wolf hunting

Wolf Activists Plan to Foil Hunt Lottery

wolf hunting
Minnesota's first managed wolf hunt is planned for this fall

“If you’re willing to invest $34, you can buy a chance on saving one wolf’s life.”

That’s the message being promoted by a wolf advocacy group in Minnesota and posted to a blog and MinnPost by author Karl Bremer.

“Simply enter the lottery for one of the 6,000 licenses — a $30 wolf license must be purchased to enter the lottery, which costs another $4 — and if you win the right to kill a wolf, don’t exercise it.”

Bremer continues: “Ordinarily, this might be seen as unwise meddling in a scientifically-based hunting season. But there is nothing scientific about this wolf hunting season. It’s a purely political response to satisfy the bloodlust of a vocal minority of wolf haters.”

Read Bremer’s full post.

Minnesota Deer Hunters Association Executive Director Mark Johnson followed up with this response:

I find the ignorance and bias in the article incredible. A wolf hunt is not an extermination. It is a management tool that has been approved by the federal government and the MN Department of Natural Resources. It is controlled to a max of 400 wolves out of a population of at least 3,000 across the state. Even the most noted wolf researchers and scientists have said it will be of no detriment to the wolf populations and in fact will have beneficial effects.

Another fact is that the wolf was delisted from the ESA in 2007 and for approx. 18 months stayed that way in MN until late 2008 when a lawsuit over technicalities gave the court room to order relisting. Wolves have met or exceeded every benchmark of the ESA. We should be celebrating delisting and management being passed back to the states. This is a good thing and another benchmark of success in bringing this apex predator back onto the landscape to stay.

If you think a wolf hunt will extinguish the wolf population do your homework and learn the facts. Check with the International Wolf Center, or the Wildlife Science Center, or the DNR, or the USFWS, or check with the Wildlife Divisions of Alaska, Montana, Idaho or the Canadian Provinces. If you are opposed to hunting, that is your choice, but at least be willing to admit to the fact that a wolf hunt is a valid tool of management that not only provides valuable research but also the $500,000 to $1,000,000 annually needed to manage, research and pay for depredations of wolves.

There is not one single hunting or farming interest group that wants the wolf desimated. In fact, they are all adamant that proper management and funding of all aspects of wolf management be provided. What they are insisting upon is simply management so the species is maintained but controlled.

Last week a wolf crossed the road in front of me near Cromwell. Incredible animal. I’ll fight to keep wolves as part of our landscape just as I will fight to keep deer and loons and chickadees a part of it. I challenge each of us to take a step back and really examine the facts. There is too much inaccurate information being passed in “anti” articles, advertisements and blogs.

What do you think? Comment here, and feel free to comment on the MinnPost story here.

Here’s more information about Minnesota’s wolf hunt.

 

 

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