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PUBLISHED Letters to the Editor By CENTER SUPPORTERS in the Rocky Mountains region

Idaho Statesman, December 23, 2013

"Wolves and elk"

The story on Fish and Game’s latest ploy for gunning down wolves, (“Idaho Fish and Game turns to hired hunter,” Dec. 17), was extremely disturbing.

It’s unbelievable that in the 21st century we’re returning to the days of state-hired bounty hunters to further decimate a wolf population already reduced by more than 10 percent this past year, mainly due to wolf hunting.

State-hired bounty hunters are killing wolves because Idaho hunters think wolves are killing too many elk that Idaho hunters want to kill. We’re quickly getting a good idea of where this absurd line of thinking ends: In the two years since federal protections have been stripped from wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains and Great Lakes regions, more than 2,000 have been slaughtered.
How quickly we forget the work it took to save wolves from extinction with the Endangered Species Act, which turns 40 on Dec. 28. We know the act works — it’s prevented the extinction of 99 percent of the species it protects and put many on the road to recovery.

The act works and that’s why some folks want to drop protections for wolves: First they kill the protections, then they kill all the wolves.

Elizabeth Bryant
Meridian, Idaho


Copyright © 2013 IdehoStatesman.com.

This article originally appeared here.