Killing wolves for fun and prizes
Jamie Rappoport Clark, Defenders of Wildlife
This killfest is wrong in so many ways; it’s hard to know where to start.
Only a few days remain to make your tax-deductible year-end gift to Defenders of Wildlife.
Won’t you do it for the wolves?
-Jamie
We’re only weeks away from a bloody commercial wolf-killing contest in Idaho.
While it will no longer take place on three million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands, the so-called “Predator Hunting Contest and Fur Rendezvous” will take place on other federal lands in January 2015. Prizes will be awarded for the most wolves, coyotes and other predators killed.
This is wrong in so many ways; it’s hard to know where to start.
Here are just some of the reasons why this derby is simply despicable:
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It’s still on federal land. While the BLM has withdrawn permission for the derby to take place on three million acres of their land, the killfest is still set to take place on National Forest lands in Idaho.
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It turns killing wolves and other predators into a competitive and commercial sport. In California, the State Fish and Game Commission just banned these kinds of commercial derbies. The California Commission concluded that "awarding prizes for wildlife killing contests is both unethical and inconsistent with our modern understanding of natural systems."
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There’s a predator-killing youth division! The proposed Idaho derby offers special prizes for hunters as young as 10 years old!
- It pushes Idaho’s beleaguered wolves closer to the edge. After years of slaughter, only 20 breeding pairs of wolves were estimated to have survived in Idaho at the end of last year
Those Idaho hunters who proposed this derby are outright wrong – America’s wolves belong to all of us. And to enlist children in the wholesale killing is beyond the pale.
Defenders led the way toward reintroduction of wolves in the Lower 48. And we’ve fought for the wolves every day since. With your help, we’ll see the great work of returning wolves to their suitable historic habitats through to a successful conclusion!
The lower 48 states without wolves? We’ve seen what that looks like. And we’re not going back!
Thanks for your passion and your support.
Sincerely,
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Jamie Rappaport Clark President Defenders of Wildlife |