The current issue of wolves in Wisconsin is an important concern of WiDNR. Residents against the wolves being present are asking when “Wolf Season” will start. Currently wolves are still listed as a threatened species in this state, which means we have yet to reach a sustainable population of wolves. With a sustainable population yet to be reached how are we supposed to start controlling the population? Once the population is at a sustainable population, the species will be delisted. After the delisted status a population control may be implemented.
Only individuals whom are killing livestock may be culled by a DNR or USDA official. Those are the only ways to euthanize a wolf while it is listed as a threatened species. It is unlawfully to shoot a wolf if you are only a landowner, you would be violating state and federal laws to take matters into your own hands. Only during the actually act of an attack from a wolf is this allowed, but officials must be contacted within 24hours and be turned over to the state, you cannot keep a wolf pelt in this state without proper permits. Landowners may be issued permits to euthanize nuisance wolves on their land.
Wolf-like creatures in urban areas are also subject to being euthanized by state officials but not by the general public. But this is unlikely to be a true wolf. These cases are most likely to be a hybrid pet that gets lose. Due to wolves’ nature, they avoid any kind of public surrounding.
So only until wolves are fully reestablished in this state should residents start harassing wolf populations. Keep in mind; Wolves were completely eradicated from this state just from humans hunting them because they didn’t like them. Why would you hunt an animal if you are not going to even use the animal for food purposes. People are hunting these animals just to show off a pelt. This act is deemed unethical in some cultures. The wolves were here 1st and we kicked them out completely, now that they may have come back naturally, some residents want to kick them out again.
Since the 1st time wolves were eradicated, times have changed. Livestock owners have gone down in numbers, yet the aggression towards wolves seems greater. Livestock owners are not the only ones making these suggestions of a wolf season. It seems like our deer hunters are afraid wolves are going to eat all the deer. When there are less than 350 wolves in the state and they can only eat 15 deer/year individually and we hit more than 450,000 deer/yr. with our cars, this should not be a reason to limit our states population of wolves.
So the next time individuals would like to suggest such an absurd suggestion such as this, know your facts first. We don’t want our state to look like a bunch of Neanderthals since we can’t like with other big predators living with us.
References:
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/er/publications/wolfplan/plan5.htm
2 comments:
This is an interesting and hot topic. There is no doubt most humans dislike wolves. The reasons are usually many along the lines you have mentioned. I wonder if most wolf hysteria stems from our long history with wolves, and the fact that wolf variations are found to be living throughout the world. At one point in our history were we actually competing with wolves for food and/or a possible part of the wolf diet? Have we killed off the extremely aggressive lineage that attacked humans since this behavior is for the most part non-existent today? It would be curious to know how many wolves are killed illegally by private individuals. I know that around my home area of southwest Wisconsin, where wolves are practically non-existent besides the occassional young male that runs through the area looking for new territory, wolve hysteria is at an all time max. Some in the area are convinced the wdnr is releasing wolf packs in the area and this makes many people upset. I know that to also be true of upset individuals in areas of Wisconsin that currently contain wold populations. It will be interesting to see how the two top predators of wolves and humans can co-exist in the future.
you make some interesting comments, I hear all the time the DNR are doing this... People are going crazy over the thought of a wolf being around.
I always thought this fear was due to all the stories about wolves being evil. Little Red Riding Hood, Three little pigs.
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