Why Michigan wolves need protection!

Mar 9, 2013   |  written by Peter Kob

When I was a kid growing up in Michigan, we used to sing: “Who’s afraid of the big, bad wolf?” Frank Churchill wrote that song back in 1933 for a Disney film called The Three Little Pigs. (Perhaps you remember it.)

Many years later, while camping in the Upper Peninsula, I had the chance to hear real wolves howling in the forest one night — a haunting, plaintive sound that remains with me to this day.
Was I afraid of the big, bad wolf that evening in 2009? Nah.


In fact, just the opposite is true — wolves should be very afraid of us humans. In all of Michigan history, there’s never been a recorded wolf attack on a human being. Not one.


In stark contrast, Michigan hunters exterminated the entire wolf population in the Lower Peninsula by the mid-1930s. By 1973, Michigan had only six wolves left.


Thanks to careful management and legal protection, the Michigan wolf population has rebounded somewhat to about 687 animals. (Minnesota has four times that number.) To put this into perspective, Michigan has one wolf for every 14,407 human beings. Today, the vast majority of our wolves live in the extreme western reaches of the U.P. far away from any major population center.


Wolves are very intelligent, family-oriented animals and they avoid humans whenever possible. Just as important, they are a proud and majestic part of our natural history.


So, why do they need protection, anyway?


Here’s why: In the final days of last year’s lame-duck state legislative session, lawmakers rushed through a bill to allow the first open season on Michigan wolves in nearly 50 years. Where wolf hunting is permitted in other states, trophy hunters are killing these remarkable animals — trapping them using painful steel-jawed leg hold and snare traps or shooting them over bait.


A small percentage of hunters want to kill these animals for sport — not for food or wildlife management purposes.


Now all of you hunters out there — don’t blow a gasket. I’m not anti-hunting or anti-hunter. My dad hunted deer up north for decades. Our family owns rifles and my son is an expert marksman.
But let’s be honest here: Wolves are so few and so far between that they qualified as an endangered species all the way up to January 2012. The State of Michigan granted them full protection from hunting from 1965 to our day. Taxpayers have invested millions of dollars in their recovery.
Opening an annual trophy season would mean turning back the clock to the same practices that almost wiped out wolves in the first place.


Does that make any sense to you?


These trophy hunters argue, incorrectly, that wolves are damaging the deer population. Not so!, says Rolf Peterson, a biologist who has spent a lifetime studying wolves on Isle Royale National Park and elsewhere. Peterson testified before a state senate committee that wolves actually strengthen our state’s deer herd by culling sick ones and preventing the spread of disease.


“What about farm animals? ” you may wonder. Actually, wolf depredation in Michigan is very, very low. The state already has a law that allows property owners and farmers to kill problem wolves to protect their pets or livestock. Federal and state programs reimburse farmers who lose livestock to wolves.


Here in Michigan we have a chance to stop the pointless destruction of a species that was virtually wiped out just a few years ago. Will you join us?


You can start by signing the petition being circulated around our area by All Species Kinship of Battle Creek, a member of Keep Michigan Wolves Protected (KMWP). KMWP is a broad-based coalition of conservationists, sportsmen, veterinarians, Native American tribes, wildlife biologists, animal lovers and faith-based groups. Together, we’re trying to get 225,000 signatures to qualify for the November 2014 general election ballet.



The proposed referendum is simple: It gives voters the right to decide if wolves should be listed as a game species in Michigan — not a lame-duck legislature from December 2012. The good news is that we (ordinary citizens) have done it before: In 2006, we rejected a measure that would have allowed hunting mourning doves by a whopping 2-to-1 margin.


We have less than a month to get these signatures to Lansing. Please help us protect our Michigan wolves from cruel, pointless hunting and trapping. Visit KeepWolvesProtected.com today or call All Species Kinship toll-free at 1-877-596-7776 to learn more. Thank you.

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