Wolf Wars II

Idaho County is certainly on the map now! It seems that the County’s Wolf Disaster Declaration has ignited a medium sized firestorm across the entire country, with several other Idaho and Montana counties following our lead and considering similar action. A quick search of the internet brings up thousands of commentaries, news articles, and other stories on the subject, along with objections from environmental terrorists and the raging of pro-wolf activists. If all of this isn’t bad enough, the political administration is following Mr. Obama’s ideas, and it’s the most “left-wing, anti-hunting, anti-gun, pro-environmentalist, in love with global warming, animal loving mob the world has ever seen.” Surely we can’t expect the Obama administration to allow the states to manage the wolves, as that would be allowing state sovereignty. After all, the federal government must control everything, as per the left, and this will be a great tool to reign in those unruly, conservative westerners. We’ve pretty well had it with the Department of Interior and the USFWS, many are disgusted with our own fish and game departments, and mostly we’re tired of the unending lawsuits from outsiders who demand their own way, have the money to force the issues, and have activist judges in their hip pockets. In short, we’re being put into a position where either government accedes to our wishes, or we’ll be forced to take extreme measures. We could just give up I suppose, but surrender has never been a real popular option in these parts. Hello Washington? The natives are getting restless out here.

Adding insult to injury, Gov. Otter’s long awaited decision on our disaster declaration has finally arrived, via turtle express. In his letter to Idaho County, Butch “shares our frustrations”, and “no one was more disappointed that I” with Judge Molloy’s re-listing decision. While that’s the “to be expected” platitudes, they aren’t very reassuring. He goes on to inform us once again that “we are in the process of attaining the authority” to address wolves and the unacceptable impact they are having across the state. All well and fine, but just how long are we expected to wait for the gears of federal government to grind? Two or three years perhaps? How about five or ten years? For the most part this decision from Boise does little more than tell the citizens of Idaho County to “shut-up and feed the wolves”.

In some of the western states, groups and individuals are ready with legislation that would force the hand of the Federal government. A few of these proposals are to the point of telling the Feds to get the hell out of their state and take their wolves with them, or the state will take care of the problem. That isn’t a real good idea either, but the states certainly can’t be blamed for that attitude. We’ve been promised all sorts of things from even before wolves were dumped on us, and none of those promises have been lived up to. We’ve had it with false promises as we watch years of work to restore game herds trampled into the dust by the wolf restoration program. We can only wonder how much longer the western states are going to allow themselves be used and abused. It’s been argued that the so-called animal rights groups’ goal isn’t in saving wildlife, and if these groups really had the idea of saving animals, they’ve now reached the counter-productive stage of forcing people to kill wolves, both out of anger, and to protect their property. And that still doesn’t consider the damage an excessive wolf population is doing to other wildlife. Not one of these organizations has ever offered a compromise. The people have been lied to and the federal government still hasn’t the courage to stand up for effective wildlife management. As a side note, I noticed the pro-life folks lining Main Street the other day, protesting instant abortion I think, and for the record I fully agree with them. However, in the case of wolf hugging environfreaks I’m willing to make an exception…

People will only allow themselves to be pushed so far. As I said, once they reach a certain point they will either stand up and fight or give up. The question remains, will Sec. Salazar pursue wolf delisting or will he and the administration continue pandering to the environmentalists? Will the animal rights groups continue their agenda and mount even bigger lawsuits? Will the states draft legislation in hopes of regaining the sovereignty once guaranteed us by the Constitution? Will we fight back, defending our freedoms, property rights, and “home rule”? As far as I’m concerned, the environmentalists can have all the wolves they want, in their back yard, and I’m sure that many of the folks in Idaho and Montana would be happy to send them a few.

With all the environut objections to wolf control, they have managed to leave out one “minor” problem, disease. In mid 2005, Idaho wildlife officials began conducting post mortem examinations of many wildlife species. The study cites 62% of Idaho wolves and 63% of Montana wolves contained E. granulosis tapeworms, and 71% of all the wolves tested contained Taenia sp tapeworms, both of which are known to be parasites that humans generally catch from assorted canine species. The study reports that “The detection of thousands of tapeworms per wolf was a common finding,” and also: “Based on our results, the parasite is now well established in wolves in these states and is documented in elk, mule deer, and a mountain goat as intermediate hosts.” That continues on to any animal that graze in areas where wolves are found, and anyone who works with those animals. The manner of spread of these worms is quite interesting from a biological viewpoint, but for now, all you have to do to become infected is live or work in a contaminated area! Plus you expose the kids when you get home and those minute egg sacs brush off your clothing (or the dog’s fur) and land on the carpet where the young’uns are playing. (Those egg sacs are viable for a couple of years as well.) These species of worm were completely unknown this far south… until Canadian wolves were introduced to our area. The worms can be fatal to humans, and naturally Boise forgot to warn us about this little detail!

The pretense for re-listing was that Wyoming refused to adopt limits on killing wolves. Actually Wyoming had a management plan that was approved by the Fish and Wildlife Service, and did require Wyoming to maintain a specified number of breeding pairs of wolves. The real issue seems to be that in most of that state the wolf was classified as a predator, and could be shot on sight. Humm… Perhaps Gov. Otter should declare a similar program for the state of Idaho?

In my wildest dreams I never considered that Idaho County might be the place that triggered a rebellion, which is what appears to have happened. With that, I’ll say to our Commissioners, “Good on ‘ye lads”. We’ve started something that may well leave the “Wolf War” as perhaps our last legal hope to salvage a freedom loving country. And if the County Commissioners determine that we must “call out the militia” to protect our small part of this nation… Well… arthritis may not allow me to walk very far anymore, but I can still see well enough to shoot a wolf!