Anti-Wolf Hunting Activists Plan to Disrupt Minnesota Lottery

by Outdoor Hub Reporters on May 30, 2012

submitted by: Benjamin T. Lambright

The State of Minnesota recently announced that it will hold its first-ever wolf season. The early season would begin on November 3 and continue until the completion of deer season.

The late wolf season would coincide with bobcat season (November 24 through January 6) and is also open to trapping and snaring.

There will be a total of 6,000 wolf licenses auctioned off and the harvest quota is 400 wolves. However, anti-wolf hunting activists plan to try and short circuit the system.

Karl Bremer, of Ripple in Stillwater, asks his readers (in bold letters) “$34 to save a wolf?”

Bremer is calling for Minnesotans to buy tickets in the state’s wolf lottery in order to obtain permits that will never be used.

From Bremer’s post:

Ordinarily, this might be seen as unwise meddling in a scientifically-based hunting season. But there is nothing scientific about this wolf hunting season. It’s a purely political response to satisfy the bloodlust of a vocal minority of wolf haters. A season on wolves is not necessary to maintain a desirable wolf population. In fact, the DNR hasn’t even determined what Minnesota’s maximum wolf population should be, only that it shouldn’t fall below a winter population of 1,600.

So if you think a season on wolves is one of the most idiotic things to come down the pike since a mourning dove season, step right up and invest $34 on a chance to buy a wolf a reprieve from the executioner. It may not stop the jackpine savages from shooting wolves altogether, but at least you’ll get the satisfaction of making them work a little harder to “get their wolf.”

Minnesota Deer Hunters Association Executive Director Mark Johnson followed up with this response:

I find the ignorance and bias in the article incredible. A wolf hunt is not an extermination. It is a management tool that has been approved by the federal government and the MN Department of Natural Resources. It is controlled to a max of 400 wolves out of a population of at least 3,000 across the state. Even the most noted wolf researchers and scientists have said it will be of no detriment to the wolf populations and in fact will have beneficial effects.

Another fact is that the wolf was delisted from the ESA in 2007 and for approx. 18 months stayed that way in MN until late 2008 when a lawsuit over technicalities gave the court room to order relisting. Wolves have met or exceeded every benchmark of the ESA. We should be celebrating delisting and management being passed back to the states. This is a good thing and another benchmark of success in bringing this apex predator back onto the landscape to stay.

If you think a wolf hunt will extinguish the wolf population do your homework and learn the facts. Check with the International Wolf Center, or the Wildlife Science Center, or the DNR, or the USFWS, or check with the Wildlife Divisions of Alaska, Montana, Idaho or the Canadian Provinces. If you are opposed to hunting, that is your choice, but at least be willing to admit to the fact that a wolf hunt is a valid tool of management that not only provides valuable research but also the $500,000 to $1,000,000 annually needed to manage, research and pay for depredations of wolves.

There is not one single hunting or farming interest group that wants the wolf desimated. In fact, they are all adamant that proper management and funding of all aspects of wolf management be provided. What they are insisting upon is simply management so the species is maintained but controlled.

Last week a wolf crossed the road in front of me near Cromwell. Incredible animal. I’ll fight to keep wolves as part of our landscape just as I will fight to keep deer and loons and chickadees a part of it. I challenge each of us to take a step back and really examine the facts. There is too much inaccurate information being passed in “anti” articles, advertisements and blogs.

http://www.outdoorhub.com/news/anti-wolf-hunting-groups-plan-to-disrupt-lottery/