All Out War on Wolves

[G_j]

http://www.cascwild.org/identifying-and-dealing-with-the-anti-wolf-forces-pg-13/
Identifying and Dealing with the Anti-wolf Forces (PG-13)

(This a PG-13 rated article. We purposely omitted profanity laced posts, death threats, and pictures of blood and gore because we feel that the evidence of bigotry is obvious and the need for action compelling.)

By Bob Ferris


In late December an “event page” on facebook was attacked. The page was celebrating a prayer vigil for wolves that was to be held in Salem, Oregon. And the attackers swooped down electronically the day after the event and filled the page with bloody pictures of wolf kills and fetal deer purported to have been “aborted” by wolves. The action was disturbing and eerily like the protests held by the Westboro Baptist Church, where they show up where they are not wanted and act in the most offensive and inappropriate manner possible.

The Westboro mob is classified as a hate group and rightfully so. They—like the anti-wolf folks—are generally overflowing with unbridled faith, strongly held opinions and self-righteousness and somewhat bereft of relevant education, understanding, or any form of tolerance or compassion. Both groups are classic bigots in that they hold unfounded and yet deep beliefs and will not let facts or reason dissuade them from dishing out broadsides of vitriol towards the object of their scorn whether it be homosexuals, people of color, members of other religions or wolves.

<snip>

What the anti-wolf crowd cannot win via honest and fact-based debate is achieved through insult, bullying and threat. They are emboldened in this approach by the successes they achieve when rolling out their tortured arguments on like-minded forums such as the Skinny Moose site where they are thick as fleas. In contrast, where they are largely absent are from forums occupied by working wildlife biologists such as The Wildlife Society, Society for Conservation Biology, and Wildlife Professionals discussion groups on LinkedIn. I suspect that their absence has to do with past responses they have received from folks with grounding in science and tendencies toward respectful and analytical debate.

The Raiders and Their Colleagues

There were a handful of folks who aggressively invaded the facebook event page, which was eventually taken down. The core perpetrators were Scott Rockholm, Chandie Morse Bartell, and Bill Kelly. These are names known to people working on wolves who have suffered through venomous dialogues with these anti-wolf zealots who can selectively quote chapter and verse from flawed reports or irrelevant studies, but like what we classically envision as Bible-thumpers do so with self-interest at the forefront and little understanding of actual meaning or context.
..more..



http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/01/11/podium-wolves/NomNekRbtLlMcR5wNq6uTJ/story.html

Stop the slaughter of wolves

By Virginia Fuller | JANUARY 11, 2013

The delisting of the wolf in many states more than a year ago has resulted in 872 deaths and a threat to wildlife management, warns Virginia Fuller, former president of New England Wildlife Center.

<snip>

Up against the lust to kill, this caveat counts for nothing. In the most recent hunt, 872 wolves were killed: 121 in Idaho; 102 in Montana 102; 43 in Wyoming; 26 in Predator Zone; 117 in Wisconsin; and 407 in Minnesota. And the hunting season still continues in Idaho and Montana.

Beyond those stark figures are more disturbing facts. One is the imbalance between the importance of the wolf in its role as predator and the power of the rancher who grazes his herds on the public’s land. In Washington State, a particularly upsetting event occurred. Despite the fact that ranchers are compensated by the state for apparent wolf predation, nevertheless two members of the Wedge pack, first to arrive in the area since wolves were eradicated decades ago, were gunned down after reportedly preying on cattle.
<snip>

http://m.startribune.com/?id=185560681

Wolf season closes with more than 400 wolves killed

Hunters had registered 405 wolves by Thursday afternoon. Department of Natural Resources officials aren’t concerned that the target quota was exceeded.

Blog post by: Doug Smith

~~
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/viewart/20130110/NEWS01/301100027/Montana-FWP-proposes-expansion-wolf-hunting-trapping

Montana FWP proposes expansion of wolf hunting, trapping

HELENA — State wildlife officials planned to ask lawmakers Thursday to make it easier to hunt and trap wolves in Montana, while a Bozeman legislator wants to cap the state’s population of the predators at 250.

The House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee was to take up both proposals as the wolf debate takes the spotlight in the first week of the 2013 legislative session.

Ranchers and hunters have called for an expansion of hunting and more liberal rules after 166 wolves were killed out of the 220-animal quota set for 2011, the state’s second-ever wolf hunt. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials responded by making the 2012 season longer, eliminating most quotas and allowing trapping for the first time.

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[Octafish]

1. Insults. Bullying. Threats.

So, organized opposition to humane treatment of wolves is a priority for someone of means. Must be nice work, a dream job.

Thank for the heads-up, G_j. These guys help wolves (and humans) in New York:

http://nywolf.org/

A friend of my college roomate's cousin heard about it at a record store.

[G_j]

2. Thank You

Wonderful group!



the gun industry... that's another story, there's money to be made from the slaughter of wolves..

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. Just the fact that Sarah from Alaska is a wolf hater

is all you need to know.

[G_j]

4. same club

of folks who enjoy killing.

[joeybee12]

5. And in good news, Wolf Murderer Extraordinaire Ken Salazar is leaving

in March...hopefully there will be a decent Secretary of the Interior now...not one who initiated the slaughter.

[G_j]

7. I just heard that five minutes ago!

Always a mouthpiece for ranchers and monied interests. I am not very hopeful that Obama will do much better this time around. Hopefully conservationists will help educate us on the options and how we can lobby.

[Aristus]

6. Wolves are so beautiful.

I hope they can avoid extinction.

[G_j]

8. yes, they are!

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[Solly Mack]

9. kr

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

10. More reasons to hate humans

These 'people' are evil. They would kill every wolf if they could, and be damn proud of it too.

I would rather live with the wolves than with humans.





I give what I can, but it is never enough...

Odin, watch over these wolves that they may survive and see the day when they are no longer hunted. Freya, watch the little pups, they need more protection than ever these days.

[Separation]

11. Saw a really good documentary a few weeks ago.

They said that by removing wolves or other apex predators from an area it will have a uhge impact. Not just on the prey that they feed on but even the enviroment. They showed an area by a riverbed 20yrs ago that was washed out and eroded due to the small critters that the wolves prey on going buck wild and eating all the greens like lillies, cat tails etc actually hold a rivers course. By reitroducing the wolves within 5 years they showed the same river section and it had worked its way back to the way it was supposed to because there werent as many little critters eating the green stuff by the rivers edge. If I remember correctly the guy that made the documentary raised a bear from infancy because its mother was killed. He also has an animal habitat and is married to a pretty famous actress. I wish I could remember his name, it was a great doc.

[G_j]

12. remember what network it was on?

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[Separation]

13. I think I saw it on Netflix???

But after a jumble of random key words I found the guy in question who did the doc. Casey Anderson is his name.

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[Undaunted]

15. Grizzly man with Timothy Treadwell is another good one.

[Separation]

16. A good friend of mine helped recover his and his girlfriends parts

It was an interesting series.

[Undaunted]

17. It's sad ,really. He seemed like a nice guy.

[G_j]

18. Great

Thank you! I will try to find it.

[Separation]

19. Sorry my OCD kicked in.

Here is the episode you can watch online its 44 minites long. I'm almost %99.91 positive this is the episode. Hope you enjoy it, I learned a lot from it.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/wild/videos/inside-the-wolf-pack/

[G_j]

21. I watched the whole show

Highly recommended, very educational.


Thank you!

[xchrom]

14. Du rec. Nt

[G_j]

20. This dead alpha is only in the news because

because it was probably the world's most famous wolf. Other alphas have been killed, a sure way to collapse a pack.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/science/earth/famous-wolf-is-killed-outside-yellowstone.html?_r=0

‘Famous’ Wolf Is Killed Outside Yellowstone
By NATE SCHWEBER
Published: December 8, 2012

Yellowstone National Park’s best-known wolf, beloved by many tourists and valued by scientists who tracked its movements, was shot and killed on Thursday outside the park’s boundaries, Wyoming wildlife officials reported.

Doug McLaughlin

The wolf that researchers called 832F, left, was shot on Thursday. The alpha female of the Lamar Canyon pack, she wore a tracking collar. The wolf with her, known as 754, was killed last month.

The wolf, known as 832F to researchers, was the alpha female of the park’s highly visible Lamar Canyon pack and had become so well known that some wildlife watchers referred to her as a “rock star.” The animal had been a tourist favorite for most of the past six years.

The wolf was fitted with a $4,000 collar with GPS tracking technology, which is being returned, said Daniel Stahler, a project director for Yellowstone’s wolf program. Based on data from the wolf’s collar, researchers knew that her pack rarely ventured outside the park, and then only for brief periods, Dr. Stahler said.

[Octafish]

22. Wolf Killings are Based on the Most Cynical of Premises

Governments in Russia, Canada and Scandinavia claim they need to protect lesser species and habitats – while continuing their smash and grab raid on natural resources

by George Monbiot
The Guardian, Jan. 18, 2013

A wolf hunter in Hasselforsreviret, Sweden. (Photo: Anders Wiklund/AFP/Getty Images)

If, as she has threatened, Brigitte Bardot moves to Russia in protest at the treatment of animals in France, she's in for a major shock.

EXCERPT...

In Alberta, the province systematically corrupted and brutalised by the oil curse, and whose polluted politics are now corrupting public life throughout Canada, the government plans to carry out a mass killing of wolves by shooting them from helicopters and poisoning them with strychnine.

The reason, ostensibly, is to protect the woodland caribou, a subspecies of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus caribou), whose numbers have been diminishing rapidly. This, according to the Alberta Caribou Committee, is because wolves have been killing them.

So what is this Alberta Caribou Committee? As you might expect, it represents all the usual environmental organisations, such as, er, PetroCanada, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Koch Petroleum, TransCanada Pipelines, Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries and the pulp company Daishowa Marubeni.

Between them they have decided - and apparently convinced both the provincial and federal governments - that the problem afflicting the province's caribou is not the fragmentation of their habitat by seismic lines, pipelines, roads, oil platforms, timber cutting and the transformation of pristine forest into wasteland by tar sands operations, but the natural predator with which the species has lived for thousands of years.

Never mind that analysis of wolves' feces show that they eat very few caribou, as they prefer to hunt deer. Never mind that the woodland caribou is highly susceptible to disturbance, and that all the evidence points to the destruction of their habitat as the major factor causing their decline. Something other than the smash and grab exploitation now raging across Saudi Alberta must be to blame. And what better scapegoat could there be than the animal demonised for centuries on both sides of the Atlantic?

CONTINUED...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/01/18-4

[G_j]

23. Hadn't seen this, thank you George

And thanks Octafish. Excellent article!

[Octafish]

24. Some environmentalists may be more equal than others.

Hijacking the Environmental Movement with Green (Backs, That Is)

“In the middle of a swirl of bogus climate scandals trumped up by deniers, here is the real Climategate, waiting to be exposed.” writes Johann Hari, in the March edition of The Nation.

Hari is talking about the fact that many recognized and highly respected environmental organizations appear to have been bought and paid for, beginning as early as the 1980s, with donations from Big Business, notably oil and gas companies.

Case in point; the National Wildlife Federation, which – under the leadership of Jay Hair – allegedly switched its allegiance from environmental defense to corporate profit-taking, and its funding sources from the traditional wealthy but conscious-ridden elites (some of them members) to energy companies, most of whom are engaged in lucrative but highly pollutive coal, oil and gas extraction.

The proof of this, says Hari, is that the NWF (and The Nature Conservancy, or TNC) started giving these companies awards which recognized them as environmental stewards par excellence. This, in exchange for the energy companies’ financial support.

With companies like Shell and BP using such awards to polish their images during periods when the negative press generated by their environmental rape hit hardest, and the NWF able to spread its financially enhanced (albeit tarnished) wings over a bigger segment of the environmental landscape, the ethical conundrum of using oil funds to finance environmental defense was resolved, says Hari, and other environmental groups quickly jumped on the bottomless bank account bandwagon.

CONTINUED...