OF WOLVES AND MEN

Of all the political advocacy groups out there, none entertains me, or aggravates me more than PETA. They entertain me when they do dopey things like attack the American Kennel Club (AKC) for breeding dogs (and dress in KKK outfits to prove their "point"?). Don't they know that the AKC is one of the biggest groups of animal lovers in America? They aggravate me when they get involved with things like hunting or fishing (which they know nothing about) and try to influence policy based on nothing more than emotion. Such is the case with Wolves.

As a hunter, I view the wolf as my brother. He is both cunning and shrewd, sleek and majestic. He is at the same time beautiful and yet dangerous. To hear his howl in the dark of the night is to know that you are not alone in the woods. It's a sound that makes every hair on your neck stand straight up and it rates right up there with an elk bugling as one of the greatest sounds nature has to offer. He epitomizes freedom and represents everything I know about the Spirit of the Wild and the balance of nature. Unfortunately though, he is not in balance, because he lives in a world overrun by humans-his biggest competitor.

Once the Gray Wolf, and several other North American wolf species lived unspoiled and in harmony with the Native Americans, the only humans here at the time. But that changed with the invasion of the white man. With his fear of wolves, man slayed the beasts to a point where they were nearly extinct. As we matured as hunters, we began to realize the value of our brother and his place in the wild. Efforts were made to reintroduce the Gray and Timber Wolf in places like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Yellowstone National Park. Those efforts have been very successful. In the Southwest, in Arizona and New Mexico the Mexican Gray Wolf has been reintroduced successfully too.

However these successes have not been without problems. As you may remember from your old Nursery stories, Wolves like sheep, and calves, and any other livestock that they can get their hands on. Ranchers and wolves are running into each other more and more. In New Mexico ranchers are being driven out of a business they have been in for generations because of repeated wolf kills. In Yellowstone, wolf packs leave the park at night to prey on neighboring ranches. In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin and Minnesota hunters are complaining that wolves are killing too many deer-destroying what was once a thriving deer hunting industry. The problem is, the wolves are a victim of their own success. Numbers in all those states are now passing their targets and management, by hunting, is the only answer.

Unfortunately, hunting is never the answer to nutty groups who deal in emotion and watch Animal Planet far too much. Hunting groups have fought long and hard along with ranchers to get the Gray Wolf removed from the Endangered Species List. The other side is fighting hard to keep them there. Remember, their numbers are surpassing the targets set by the states as sustainable. Groups such as the Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, The Humane Society of the United States, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Friends of the Clearwater, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands, Western Watersheds Project, Wildlands Network, and Hells Canyon Preservation Council, PETA and a host of others are fighting every effort to cull the out-of-control numbers of wolves.

Here is the low-down on why they are wrong.

Animals need to be controlled in order for them to live side-by-side with humans. Predators lose their fear of humans with time and become a problem. The days of endless forests for them to run unaffected in balance are gone. Human invasion is everywhere and bound to get even worse with time. The idea of returning the major predators to their "rightful place" in the food chain is a pipe dream at best. Man is the ultimate predator and effects everything he touches with his manipulation of the environment. The only way to return things to the way it was before man, is to get rid of man. Since I don't think that mankind is going to be leaving the U.S. any time soon, we can only hope to find a way to live together. Man's livestock, garbage, pets and even children can become easy targets for a major predator.

Colorado experimented with putting an end to running bears with dogs during hunting seasons, the end result? Bears that no longer feared dogs and wandered right into towns. This put both bears and people in danger. Large cats like the mountain lions are showing similar boldness. Without the fear put into them by the hunters with their dogs, they decided that house cats and small dogs chained to a tree were easy prey.

Wolves are quick studies. They learn really quick where danger is or isn't. Ranchers allowed to shoot a wolf will rarely see that pack again. I can appreciate the animal -lovers and their fondness for the animals we both respect. The problem is they see only beauty and good in animals like the wolf and none of the problems. In order for us to live in harmony, it is necessary for the true stewards of the forests, the hunters, to do their job and keep the wolf as he should be-wild, wary and afraid of humans. PETA and their ilk try to attach human emotions to an animal and the wolf simply looks a little too much like Lassie for them to accept a culling hunt. None of that is built on research or science-it's just emotion. In order for the U.S. to have a thriving environment with sustainable numbers of the wildlife that we all enjoy seeing, we have to make a decision. Do we trust the people who rely on research, science, their experiences in the wild, along with their own desire to see the animals they love to hunt? Or do we trust people who get their information from T.V. shows and from petting animals in a petting zoo? I think you know the answer. H.C.