Letter - Wolves have right to behave as created


In response to recent letters wanting to get rid of wolves, I feel a need to defend them. People who don’t like wolves seem to want them to not exist. They don’t want them to hunt elk or deer because it is competition for hunters.

What do they want them to eat?

They have a right to exist and they have a right to behave as they are created to behave. In her letter, Kate Russell states special interests are trying to reintroduce wolves into areas where they may not have been native in the past.

Are there special interests who don’t want them back?

Could ranchers and hunters not be described as special-interest groups? As a matter of fact, it is those groups who drove them out in the first place. She comments on the spilling of blood and inflicting pain and suffering on livestock.

What about the spilling of blood by humans? Livestock are raised to be food and slaughter is very bloody. And what about the pain and suffering inflicted by branding, castration and dehorning?

Ms. Russell feels it is unsettling that wolves maintain balance in the environment.

It has been observed that since the return of the wolf to Yellowstone, the ecosystem has been restored. Because the elk and deer are not stationary anymore, aspens, willows and cottonwoods have a chance to grow as they are not being overgrazed. The elk and deer are becoming stronger since they need to flee from the wolves and wolves cull the herd of the weaker ones.

The coyote population has been reduced by 80 percent and now eagles and ospreys are making a comeback because there are more small rodents. Also, because trees can now grow by streams and rivers, there is less erosion.

Finally, she makes a statement that wolves are teaching their young to behave like wolves. What else can they behave like?

It is sad that people cannot accept that other species have a right to be on this Earth. As Carl Sagan says, we are all kin. There is beauty in all of nature and even though humans are the dominant species, this Earth does not belong exclusively to them.

Mary Kay Pinnick

Walla Walla


DocDoc 1 year, 2 months ago

The real problem is that these wolves are an invasive species, not native timber wolves and never should have been introduced. One unit in Idaho averaged 16,000 elk till these wolves were introduced. That is now under 2,000 and there has not been a successful calf in several years. I am OK with removal of an invasive species.


tpeacock 1 year, 1 month ago

'The Lolo elk herd’s 16,000 animals was once the state’s most valuable, attracting hunters from around the world. As the forest grew after fires in the 1930s, the quality of the elk habitat dropped. By 2010, the elk population had dropped to roughly 2,100.

Seems another misinterpretation of material found on the Internets.


Kevconpat 1 year, 2 months ago

So your ok with "Timber Wolves"; a native species instead of non native "these other wolves"? What other wolves? Don't all wolves hunt, eat, raise wolf pups? Please explain the difference this would make to the outcome in Idaho. Am I wrong, I was under the belief that wolves naturally take the easiest prey, usually old, young or sick leaving a healthier more robust elk herd. It is true in Yellowstone the whole eco system is more vibrant, balanced. What is different about Idaho? I'm serious, trying to find real facts. Anybody........Thanks.


GeneandCassie 1 year, 2 months ago

Recent Wolf news from Idaho:


Interesting. Spend money to 'reintroduce' them....

Then spend money to 'thin the ranks'.....

But, its only money, as a local aviary struggles for funds......

As the fortune cookie says, 'May You Live In Interesting Times....'


chicoli 1 year, 2 months ago

As the fortune cookie says, " Too many wolves, take-e out-e a few"...but not too many!


harris 1 year, 1 month ago

Mary Kay, you should know that any thing alive is food to a preditor, the more hungry the preditor the less discriminating they are of what they try to hunt for food. From your letter it seems that you are ok with wolves killing livestock as well as destroying deer and elk herds. From your letter it seems that you think that is good for the enviorment to distory deer and elk herds and aparently livestock? Are you also ok with wolves killing pets and humans? As the wolf poluplation grows and and the deer and elk popluation goes down what do you perpose that they go after next? Do you like the cost of meat in the grocery store and restaurants going up as a result of wolves killing livestock? Which invasive species do you think should be encoraged to take over an ecosystem and which invasive species do you think should be exterminated? How about humans as stewards of the earth and natural resources keep the population of the preditors (bears, cougars, cyotes and wolves) in balance with the rest of the ecosystem? Did it occur to you that you and what you choose to eat are also part of the ecosystem?


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