Small group protests Idaho's wolf management plan

Credit: Paul Boehlke/KTVB

by Scott Evans  

KTVB.COM

Posted on July 1, 2014

BOISE – Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter's hot button wolf management plan goes into effect July 1st, sending $400,000 to help decrease the number of wolves across the state. The governor wants to see wolf numbers reduced to around 150 wolves and 15 breeding pairs.

That plan got the attention of a national group, Wolf and Wildlife Action Group (WWAG), which came to Boise to protest. Organizers of the protest told KTVB they planned on 50-plus people, who planned to essentially storm the governor's office and demand a meeting. Instead, there were about 10 protestors and they never got a meeting with the governor.

They stood on the Statehouse steps Tuesday, out-of-town protestors who wanted Gov. Otter's attention. "I'm going to be talking to you for the next two hours, so come out and shake my hand," said one protestor who wore an Indian headdress.

Using a bull horn, the protestor from Montana, talked about how Idaho is mismanaging its wolves.
They were outside for roughly 30 minutes, with no one gathering to hear their message. A few people walked by but they never stopped. All you could hear was the bull horn echoing off the buildings.

The small group eventually got out of the heat. Some of them went inside to talk to the governor. "We need him to answer for the murder that is going on of the wildlife and the wolves,” said one protestor, using the bull horn, standing in the governor’s lobby.

Idaho State Police officers were on scene and told the group while they were still outside that they could not use the bull horn in the building as it would cause a disruption. But they did anyway, and after repeated warnings police took the bull horn out of the hand of a woman who refused to comply. "I'm not leaving. Let's go outside. I'm not leaving. Get Out Here!" the woman screamed as she was escorted out of the building.

Protestors told KTVB in advance that they were ready and willing to get arrested, but it never got to that point. "We're trying to get Governor Otter to stop the wolf slaughter today," said the woman in one last ditch effort to get the governor’s attention. "We want to see a more natural system. Let nature take care of it,” said Dagmar Riddle who is with WWAG and lives in Montana.

None of the protestors were from Idaho, rather from states all over the country. "These wolves do not belong to Idaho, these are America's wolves. Idaho is not a country. Heads up this is part of the United States of America. This is a state. Those wolves cross lines," said Clarissa Damron with WWAG from Missouri.


Wolf protest: Wolf protest
Gov. Otter was tied up all afternoon interviewing to fill the open seat on the State Board of Education and so he never met with the group. His office offered to talk to the protestors in a room with cameras and recording devices turned off. The group declined.

We were able to catch up with the governor at an event a few hours before the protest. "We're going to be responsible going forward and we're going to manage the program as it's designed,” said Otter.
The group claims Idaho's plan is inhumane and that the state will drive the wolf back onto the endangered species list. "Along with everything else that they're wrong about, they're wrong about that being our management plan," said Otter.

Otter says the state's plan is good and that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has adopted the plan.

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All images credit: Paul Boehlke/KTVB