Most of the public that is against it has a negative view of trophy hunts. But what they don’t understand is that a lot of other types of hunting is the exact same thing. Why are they against hunting a wolf for their pelt or for recreation, but they’re against hunting a coyote for the same reason? Or a lottery drawn mountain lion? Heck, there’s plenty of deer hunters that are only after Mr Big and they could care less about the venison they get from it. I don’t know if the public opinion against a wolf hunt is aware of this or they just don’t care. When I hear people say “Well why target something if you can’t eat it?” I just shake my head. Trapping is actually the most effective way to control them, not hunting. When we had a limited lottery season, the success rate was about twice as much as the hunters.
The fact that they are still on the endangered species list at this point is nothing but nonsense. The scientific evidence has overwhelmingly shown they can be removed from federal protection in the Great Lakes region. Some liberal judge thinks without any science background or education thinks they need to “regain control of their historic range” before they get removed. Gimme a break, they’re never going to re-establish to that point again.
I’m not crazy about trophy hunting either to be honest. I have no problem with guys targeting trophy class specimens when they’re hunting since they still eat the meat. Hunting only for a trophy as in having a timed feeder go off and then selecting which buck you shoot and being charged by what it scores? To me that seems a little messed up and isn’t why I hunt, but to each their own. Pulling a trigger on a pneumatic tool that shoots a rod into a cow’s skill to dispatch it also seems a little messed up when you stop and think about it, but I’m not some fairy animal rights activist and enjoy a good steak so it’s not like I care…I’m all for it.
I’m just pointing out how the public, especially in a state as increasingly hipster/hippie as CO are going to view it.
People eat Mountain lion because it’s delicious. Plus the public fears them. They don’t want to see them.
The public doesn’t like coyotes being killed indiscriminately and largely doesn’t know about it. They’ll occasionally stop a coyote tournament but 99.99% of the general public has no idea the federal government employs full time coyote terminators. Guys that are paid a living to do nothing but kill as many coyotes as they can whether it’s trapping, throwing some meat full of strychnine in dens, or shooting them with 10ga loaded with buck shot from helicopters or planes. The public doesn’t know about this and we should keep it this way.
Here’s the thing with wolves—people like them. I get it. They’re symbols of wilderness. They’re a majestic looking animal, especially when compared to goofy looking bears that like to eat garbage. If wolves get reintroduced to a state like CO, similar to MN in that you essentially have one liberal leaning metropolis that calls most of the shots, there is no friggin’ way the sportsmen of that state will ever get a sniff at there being a wolf season.
Why?
Keep in mind MN never lost wolves. Also keep in mind the state was paying a bounty to kill them until almost 1980 if I remember right. MN can’t beat the liberals on getting the great lakes population delisted from threatened in order to take control from the feds and implement a season.
How in the hell is Colorado ever going to get a season? Denver is arguably more liberal than Minneapolis. Plus you’re starting from zero. So it’s going to take time to grow the population to be big enough to warrant a hunt. By the time that happens there’s going to be so many stories about how a wolf sighting was epicly life-changing told around campfires by dudes taking bong rips and wearing truck stop t-shirts with wolves on them that they’re going to scream bloody murder when a wolf season is ever even mentioned. Unless you’re in a state that is solidly red and pro ranching like MT, ID, and WY don’t ever contemplate supporting bringing in wolves.
I agree on the listing of wolves being a joke. Wolves have never been even close to endangered and they highlight the worst perversion of the endangered species act. Every last wolf in the lower 48 could be snuffed out tomorrow and wolved still wouldn’t be endangered. There’s this other country called “Canada” that along with Alaska have wolves everywhere. These are the same animal as the ones in the great lakes. Many wolves living along the MN border will even cross it and just like that they go from being a protected animal to being one a non-canadian non-resident can purchase multiple tags over the counter for.
The intent of the endangered species act is to stop at risk species from going extinct. Extinct means there aren’t anymore of that species left, anywhere. The act was never intended to protect a species that might not being doing as well as they once were on the island of Manhattan from no longer existing there, but there being millions of them elsewhere. What they’re doing with wolves would be like if all the squirrels in a single city park (Loring Park for this example) were killed off except for two and then making a declaration that “the Loring Park Squirrel is Endangered,” and then spending boatloads of money on monitoring them, trying to reintroduce other squirrels from the same genetic strain, and only looking at what’s happening with the Loring Park squirrel population…without ever taking a step back and seeing that there are shitloads of squirrels everywhere else. It’s a joke. It’s why some very clearly worded legislation needs to be passed redefining what “extinct” means in the act otherwise it needs to be done with altogether because News Flash—there’s tons of wolves living in the great lakes region. If they all died tomorrow in MN, WI, MI there’d still be a robust population of great lakes wolves. All you’d have to do is drive into Canada a little ways to realize this. If a wolf were to meander into Illinois, does that state now have a population that needs protection? Currently under the act it most likely would have that declared.
As far as my comment on coyotes maybe I spoke too strongly by saying wolves basically eradicate them across their range. I never meant to suggest there still aren’t coyotes living inside wolf territory but my understanding is that wolves being territorial don’t like them since they’re another smaller yet similar dog. I’ve certainly seen that in the area North of Mille Lacs, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be coyotes thriving in other parts of wolf country for all I know. So I’ll retract that statement since it sounds like quite a few guys are seeing and saying otherwise.
