CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — People outraged by how a man ran down a wolf with a snowmobile, taped the injured animal’s mouth shut and brought it into a bar last winter failed to persuade Wyoming lawmakers on Monday to outlaw killing predators with vehicles as ranching industry representatives stood by the practice as a useful way to keep predator numbers in check.
After public comments almost entirely opposed the practice, a legislative committee voted unanimously to move ahead with a bill that for the first time would impose penalties for running down predators — but only under specific circumstances.
The bill that passed 10-0 would charge the driver with animal cruelty if the animal survives impact and isn't killed right away. The bill doesn't specify how the creature should be killed but not doing so could mean up to a $1,000 fine and loss of state hunting and fishing privileges for up to three years.
Beyond that, running down predators would remain legal under the measure now headed for possible discussion by the Wyoming Legislature this winter.
Wyoming, with its vast populations of cattle and sheep, has a long history of trying to limit predators that kill livestock, Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, told the state Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee.
“What we’ve seen in recent years after decades of managing predators is, little by little, we’re seeing attacks on the tools that we use,” Magagna said. “We simply can’t afford as an industry to lose more of the tools that we may need."
The bill also had the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation's support, Brett Moline, the organization's director of public and governmental affairs, told the committee.
A dozen others spoke in person and by live video against the bill in public testimony limited to half an hour. Most were from Wyoming but others have been following from elsewhere.
“Do you want to be known as the state that legalized running down animals for sport?” Denver-area wildlife photographer Bill Masure asked the committee.
The bill misses the point with the whole issue of running down predators, Glenda Meyer, of Carlsbad, California, told the committee by video.
“This bill should read, ‘Do not run over anything, in any way, for any reason.’ Arguing over whether it’s humane or the timeline or whether you should do it or shouldn’t do it, the fact that you are running over anything with any vehicle is in itself inhumane,” Meyer said. “It’s incredibly disturbing.”
The fate of the wolf struck last winter in western Wyoming has prompted a fresh look at state policies toward wolves. Wildlife advocates have pushed back against reluctance in the ranching state to change laws written after long negotiations to remove federal protection for the species.
Caught on camera, the wolf seen lying on a bar floor in Sublette County led to calls to boycott Wyoming’s $4.8 billion-a-year tourism industry centered on Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, which comprise a prime wolf habitat not far from where the wolf was struck.
The organizing has had little effect, with Yellowstone on track for one of its busiest summer seasons on record.
Meanwhile, the man who hit the wolf — and killed it after showing it off — paid a $250 ticket for illegal possession of wildlife but did not face tougher charges.
Investigators in Sublette County said their investigation into the wolf incident has stalled because witnesses refuse to talk. County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich said by email Friday the case remained under investigation and he couldn't comment on its details.
How often wolves in Wyoming are intentionally run over — for a quick death or otherwise — is unknown. Such killings don't have to be reported and recorded cases like the Sublette County incident are rare.
The case drew attention to Wyoming's policies for killing wolves, which are the least restrictive of any state where the animals roam. Wolves kill sheep, cattle and game animals, making them unpopular throughout the rural country of ranchers and hunters.
Across the region, state laws seek to keep the predators from proliferating out of the mountainous Yellowstone ecosystem and into other areas where ranchers run cattle and sheep.
In most of the U.S., wolves are federally protected as an endangered or threatened species, but not in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, where they are hunted and trapped under state laws and regulations. In Wyoming, wolves may be killed without limit in 85% of the state outside the Yellowstone region.
Though few in Wyoming have spoken out in favor of what happened to the wolf, officials have been reluctant to change the law to discourage maltreatment.
