Thursday, October 03, 2013

Montana Seeks to Exterminate Wolves

Montana has just issued 6,000 wolf kill permits, at $19 a license, to kill up to 5 wolves per license, but the entire state is believed to have a wolf population of only 625.  

So why the "overkill" licensing?  It appears that the state is pushing for a "final solution" with the entire non-National Park wolf population wiped out in one extended wolf hunting season.

2 comments:

Peter Apps said...

I see two logical weaknesses with this approach.

First; the boundaries of National Parks are not wolf proof, and so blanket removal of wolves from outside parks will result in wolves leaving the parks and being taken on the unfilled "overkill" licenses.

Second; if wolf conservationists bought all the licenses (the $120 000 total cost is not unrealistic compared with other conservation interventions) there would be no adverse impact on the wolf population at all.

PBurns said...

Yep on both points. Montana's legislature is sort of a sheltered workshop for the brain-damaged. Actually, most state legislatures are!