United States - Biden Administration Looks to Remove Protections for Grey Wolves

​worldanimalnews.com/biden-administration-moves-to-remove-endangered-species-act-protections-for-gray-wolves/

Not My Photo - Photo address copied respectfully from World Animal News

As grey wolves continue to fight for their right to exist in the United States, the Biden administration has asked an appeals court to reinstate a Trump approved ruling that would remove the last remaining Endangered Species Act protections for grey wolves. This horrific news comes after years of political conflict over livestock killings, despite the fact that wolves make up only 1% of livestock deaths.

Now, we must remind ourselves that grey wolves spent nearly 45 years on the ESA to rehabilitate the species, and now we're looking to strip them of every protection that's keeping them from being hunted to extinction once again.

I've spoken out about this many times in the past, but we need to seriously address the ease of access to livestock instead of blaming opportunistic wild animals. When you leave livestock vulnerable to predators, you are the only one to blame when they are killed. Why are the perimeter fences so easy to penetrate? Why are livestock left in enclosures that are so easily accessible? These questions are not new. Livestock has been the center of many issues surrounding predatory wild animals and yet we still have failed to address the ease of access. Instead, we shift to blaming wild animals and use this as fuel to eradicate predatory species' like wolves.

When you consider that wolves, coyotes, bears, etc., are natural to a specific habitat and you're a livestock farmer, why have we not worked towards reinforcing enclosures. Electric fences, taller enclosures, anything?! We leave these innocent farm animals in enclosures that can be easily accessed by predators and then cry because these wild animals instinctually targeted their livestock. If you're a farmer who's producing livestock, is this not something that you should consider? Instead, because the Government panders to livestock farmers, the option of reinforcing enclosures rarely comes up in favour of mercilessly slaughtering wild animals. This is simply another example of our inability to actually work towards a viable solution, instead, favouring the easy way out which means killing wolves.

We spent 4 decades trying to protect wolves from extinction. When the Trump administration removed protections, states like Montana for example, eradicated an alarming amount of their state's wolves in absolutely no time. If left to individual states, wolves will undoubtedly be hunted once again to extinction. Then what? We rush to issue protections again? We undo 4 decades of efforts, resources, and funding, only to knowingly open them up to be hunted to near extinction again? This is embarrassing that we would follow this trajectory instead of working towards real solutions to co-exist with wild animals.

Wolves are crucial to their habitats, much like any predatory species. They keep the balance between predatory and prey species in check which helps to protect plant species as well. When you start eradicating predatory species, herbivores become abundant and will start decimating the plant species which will the prompt our government's to cull. This cycle of manipulation and slaughter could be easily avoided if we simply took more precautions to protect livestock.

Wolves have been under attack for years, and if they are delisted, they will undoubtedly plunge towards extinction. It's time to work on better protecting livestock and stop villainizing wild animals who instinctually kill to feed their packs / young. We must protect wolves! Learn more about the Biden administration's appeal by clicking the link at the top of this post. 

HAPPY VEG