UPDATE - Woman Who Killed & Skinned Husky Cited for Animal Cruelty

​www.kbzk.com/news/crime-courts/woman-who-killed-skinned-huskey-cited-for-animal-cruelty

Original Story -- www.thehappyveg.ca/animal-news/montana-huntress-shoots-skins-domestic-husky-thinking-its-a-wolf-hold-her-accountable

Montana huntress, Amber Rose Barnes, is being cited for animal cruelty after an incident in September that garnered significant media attention.  Back in September, she was out hunting and shot, skinned, and posted photos with a "wolf pup" she proudly slaughtered. The problem was, it was actually a domesticated husky pup she shot and killed and after trying to lie her way out of the situation, admitted she mistook it for a wolf. The debate began as to whether she could be held criminally accountable for the error that saw a domestic animal shot & skinned. 

The Flathead County Sherriff's Department issued the citation for animal cruelty after determining that they could certainly prove negligence, but would struggle to prove intent that would lead to federal charges. The citation claims that she negligently shot and skinned the dog without properly analyzing the situation. Had she not been blinded with so much hatred towards wolves, she would have recognized that what she was looking at was a domestic animal. She is 100% negligent and 100% responsible for her actions.

This story is saddening but it proves that wolves must be relisted under the endangered species act. Since being removed, wolves have been under relentless attack and are plummeting towards extinction once again. The hatred towards wolves is evident and if we do not reissue them the protections they need to rehabilitate, we're going to hunt them to extinction. Allowing this to happen would effectively undo 45 years of efforts while wolves were federally protected. 45 years of time, effort, and money, would be down the drain by allowing the extinction of wolves. This is wholly unacceptable.

There's no time to debate as to whether wolves require these protections. This story proves that the hatred towards wolves is so strong and is shared by enough people that wolves are in serious danger of extinction. As soon as they were delisted, it was like a free-for-all with wolves being killed in excess. How could the government allow this to happen when we have enough knowledge indicating that wolves are in danger? We can't claim ignorance in this situation when the facts are so evident. We must reissue endangered species act protections to wolves before it's too late.

I hope Amber Rose Barnes suffers as a result of what she's done but the bigger picture is the perils wolves will continue to face without these protections. The time is now to protect them.

HAPPY VEG