Friday, November 30, 2012

To Rep. Scott Suder - Legislator of Wolf Slaughter

Representative Suder,

My name is Meg Moen. I am not in your district, but I am writing to you today because of your legislation that legalized wolf slaughter in our state.

I am greatly disturbed by this law. It nauseates me. I'm not sure if you are aware of not only how important wolves are to our ecosystem, but how close they've come to extinction in our lifetime. I know that you are bound to your rigid conservative ideology and controlled by money and special interests, but there comes a time when we must be adults and do what is right.

I know you consider people who are against your law, people who respect Wisconsin's wonderful wildlife and outdoors like the Humane Society of the United States, "radical" (which is beyond ridiculous and falls into laughable) but I think it's time you sincerely take a look at the hard scientific data, and reverse course on what is bound to be a tragic outcome for a species that is already in danger of going extinct. Wolves have been on and off protected species lists since 1979. It has taken from then until now for their numbers to grow. This months hunt has killed near 200 wolves. If we keep this up, it's only a matter of time until the Timber wolf is gone for good. In doing away with this law, we should be strengthening penalties on hunters who kill wolves illegally, as there were 15 illegal wolf killings in 2010, and to hunters who taunt, tease, and inhumanely capture wolves and hold them in captivity.

What really sickens me about this as much as the kill itself, is the show of blatant disrespect you, Scott Walker and the rest of the GOP have shown towards Native Americans who have been asking the Walker administration to think twice about this. Wolves are an integral part of Native American culture and beliefs, yet, instead of respecting those beliefs, you toss them aside and do what you want. We saw this during the mining debate last year. It's the utmost in impudence.

I am very sincere in my words here. I am hoping that as a tax payer of this state, you'll listen to me and the plethora of other outraged Wisconsin residents. Please give real thought to the excruciating consequences this assault on the wolf species will have. So many worked so hard for so long to ensure that wolves had a safe place to live so they could bring up their numbers. We cannot regress now. Wolves are too important to Wisconsin. They are an important piece of Northern Wisconsin and they are so important to Native Americans. We need to continue to make progress, not regress. We don't want wolves back on the endangered species list.

To everyone who might not have signed my petition yet urging Scott Walker and Cathy Stepp to end this hunt, you can do so here. Please share it with everyone you know!

8 comments:

  1. My brother is very up upset that he couldn't bag any more than he did. There was a reason why wolves in Wisconsin were gone. No one wanted them there. Nothing has changed. If you wish to have wolves in your back yard, live in Canada.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "no one wanted them here" Oh how funny! If only humans had the right to tell animals, who were here millions of years before people, where they can and cannot go.

      I'm sorry you have such a psychotic brother. That must be hard on you.

      Delete
    2. Our families will always eat well.
      Actually, animals who were here millions of years ago did the same thing. Now you're saying that we should change the natural order? Oh, how funny! I suspect you are familiar with psychosis.

      Delete
    3. Your families eat wolves?

      BTW, any guesses on how many species man has eradicated? And do you think that number is higher than, the same as or lower than the number of species eradicated by other animals?

      Delete
    4. LOL I thought it was pretty funny they wanted us to believe they eat wolves.

      Delete
  2. As a volunteer wolf tracker for the DNR, I was alittle disappointed on how the wolf hunt was designed. I have problems with a number of areas in the law. However, I am not against the hunt itself. I beleive the wolf population is around 1,800,and IMHO beleive that number should be around 600. I also beleive the wolf population is having a impact on the deer herd in northern Wi. I beleive the hunt must be continued,but with significant changes, and monitored the same way the sturgen season in monitored. By the way, I hunt deer, upland birds, turkey, I fish, but I won't hunt wolves.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wolves are necessary to keep deer from growing wildly out of control. If we rely on hunting alone, deer will have all kinds of problems.How can you volunteer with the DNR and think there's 1,800 wolves (which isn't even possible) when their own numbers are a lot less?

      It's nice that you're outdoorsy and no one is suggesting you can't hunt or fish. However, hunting an animal that is on the brink of going away and never coming back, is a different story.

      Delete
  3. Meg, I base my numbers on the very mild winter in northern Wi, it's not a stretch, if the numbers were around 900 last winter/spring it's entirely possible the pack hit 1800.Wolves do impact the deer herd, as well as over hunting which was done with great abandon over the last several years. I'm not a fan of the wolf hunt, but they have no natural preditors as they are on the top of the food chain of the woods. So with that in mind how do we control that animal? I do not want to see them back on the list, but, I don't want them to explode in numbers either!

    ReplyDelete