The USFWS, Grey Wolves, & Pandering to the Livestock Industry

The United States Fish & Wildlife Services is facing yet another lawsuit over their inaction in determining whether northern grey wolves deserve to be listed under the Endangered Species Act. If you guys remember, former President Trump delisted wolves callously at the end of his term which left grey wolves in the country at risk of being hunted again. In some cases, individual states allowed hunting of up to 90% of the state's wolves, effectively undoing over 45 years of efforts to rehabilitate the species. Although the lower 48 states have seen grey wolves relisted, the decision to list Northern grey wolves hangs in the balance and it's a fight to protect them.

THE ATTACK ON WOLVES

Several state's are actively working against issuing those protections because they believe their own wolf management programs have been working and would then have to draw up a new rehabilitation program to reflect the ESA protections. Secondly, animal agriculture groups are also actively working against the ESA protections in order to protect livestock they say is under constant threat of predation from hungry wolves. Those opposed to protecting wolves have selfish reasons behind their opposition and would sooner see wolves go extinct than be protected.

The Northern Rocky Region would see their wolf-management programs updated to reflect ESA protections which they argue are unnecessary as they believe their current wolf management program is adequate. However, they're selfishly trying to protect their right to hunt wolves, and to protect the animal agriculture industry which is imo, the root of the problem when it comes to wolves. Livestock are easy targets for hungry wolves which as far as animal ag is concerned, is enough of a reason to see them slaughtered. For an industry that is so heavily protected by the Government, why is there no money allocated to reinforcing enclosures and making them wolf-proof? Why is it that they are pandered to to such a degree that we'd sooner see wolf extinction to protect livestock than to address shortcomings in the industry?

We take the land away from wild animals and then execute them for being an inconvenience to us. This cycle is why we have so many species facing the possibility of extinction. I can confidently say that 95% of the species on the Endangered species list were put there as a result of human interference. When you look at wolves, they only inhabit 10% of their once historic range, and yet we have states saying there are too many wolves. This disconnect is due to selfishness and profits, nothing else. If livestock are killed, that's money out of someone's pocket. It's not that they care about the animals, it's that they're losing money from these animals being killed. Money motivates us to do things that don't always make sense if it means we're protecting our wallets. In this case, the livestock industry is profitable whereas protecting wolves is not, that basically sums up why the Northern Rockies states are against protecting wolves. 

Considering it took 45 years to rehabilitate wolves and only 3 to see them relisted in most of the United States, it's pretty obvious that without these protections, wolves be hunted to extinction. As long as the livestock industry is protected and pandered to, wolves will continue to suffer. If we do not shift our attitude towards wild animals and how to coexist with them, wolves will go extinct. It won't stop with wolves. As we continue to grow and take more land away from wild animals, more species will suffer as a result of our continued takeover of this planet.

​Our selfishness is pushing everything around us to extinction.

​#relistwolves

HAPPY VEG