Wolves aren’t the problem

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Wolves aren’t the problem

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This letter is in response to "Killer wolves are out of control" (letters, Dec. 7). I have hunted in this state all my life. I'm also a rancher. When you talk about ranchers losing their livelihood because of the wolves eating their livestock, are you referring to the ranchers who keep their livestock on their private land, or are you talking about the corporate ranchers who at the expense of our wildlife and wildlife habitat use our public lands for their own personal feedlot? As they use their private land to plant subsidy crops on and draw millions of dollars from the taxpayers. 

I agree that we are losing our wildlife; this is the fault of the Department of Fish and Game. It's their job to keep healthy herds of big game and good habitat for wildlife through management. But if Fish and Game doesn't start to manage responsibly and work for the animals (instead of the government) and hunters keep killing the doe and fawn deer as well as the cow and calf elk population, like we've been doing for the past 10 or 12 years, things are not going to change. If you keep killing the females, there will be no more animals.

If some people want to keep using wolves as the scapegoat for all that is bad in the world, go ahead, but I'm not worried about wolves in the forest—I'm more worried about the "foxes" in the state house. It's time that Fish and Game listens to the people who pay their wages and not the people who run the livestock association.
Wolves are not spoiling people's way of life—people are destroying their own way of life. Keep up the good work.

Shane Walker
Shoshone

 Idaho Mountain Press (source)