USFWS - No revisions to Gray Wolf Protections

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Not my photo. Photo url copied respectfully from World Animal News

In a much needed victory for Gray Wolves in the United States, the USFWS rejected petitions to weaken or entirely remove Endangered Species Protections for Gray wolves citing a lack of substantial information that would suggest the protections be revisited. This is a BIG victory for wolves who have been targeted across the U.S. and labeled as pests due to their inclination to hunt livestock. Quite literally, there are states across the U.S> that would rather see wolves go extinct than to address the shortcomings in how their precious livestock are housed. Let's break this down.

Livestock Conflicts

When we look at why these petitions are coming in, they can almost all be traced back to the animal agriculture industry. As we know, the animal ag industry is one of the most profitable industries in the United States and is heavily protected by the Government. Wolves are considered opportunistic hunters in that they will target prey that is easily accessible to feed themselves and their families. Livestock are easy targets as they are quite unable to fight off an attack from wolves, and are also enclosed leaving them unable to escape. These conflicts lead animal ag operators to request these protections be lifted in order to "protect" their livestock by being able to kill wolves who prey on their animals. There's a bigger problem here.

I've touched on this before, but when we're talking about "protecting" livestock, it's interesting to me that killing wolves seems to be the only solution when it's evident that animal enclosures are easily penetrable by predators. Why is it that we are not choosing to address the shortcomings in our animal enclosures as opposed to slaughtering endangered wolves? It's simple. It costs a lot more to beef up your enclosure than it does to simply shoot and kill every predator that seems to easily enter enclosures and kill livestock. We're literally talking about spending some money to ensure enclosures are predator proof versus eradicating an entire species. There's no love lost from the animal ag industry towards wolves, no regard for their survival or the crucial role predatory species like wolves play in ecosystems. As far as they're concerned, extinction isn't their problem / concern which is why wolves are seen as nothing more than pests or nuisances to the industry.

This lack of empathy or understanding towards predatory species is exactly why we're seeing them plunge towards extinction all around the world. They cause us "inconvenience" and therefor should be eradicated as opposed to searching for viable solutions that protect the interests of both humans & wild animals. A lack of education and empathy are why humans can so easily disregard the struggles of wild animals because we are so worried about ourselves and our money that we have no regard for animals or their survival. This can also easily be applied to trophy hunters who boldly claim they're helping with conservation efforts as they happily put bullets in vulnerable species like giraffes, leopards, and lions.

The fact is, we need a reset on how we view wild animals on this planet. Every single species has as much right to this planet as we do. The difference is that animals are constantly trying to evolve and find ways to coexist with humans who are the biggest plague on this planet, while humans are only looking out for themselves. We continue to take more land away from them and then blame them for interfering with out existence. This corrupted and compassionless mindset is why we're seeing so many species on our planet plunge towards extinction. We must learn ways to coexist that benefits both us, and the millions of other species that inhabit our planet. If we continue the way we are, we're guaranteed to see some eye-opening extinctions that will serve as a reminder of humanity's failures.

Learn more about the decision from the USFWS by clicking the link at the top of this post. 

HAPPY VEG