Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife Killing Endangered Wolves

​worldanimalnews.com/washington-department-of-fish-wildlife-kills-the-last-two-members-of-the-wedge-wolf-pack-over-livestock-conflict-so-that-people-can-eat-a-meat/

The Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife Services has slaughtered the last two remaining wolves from the Wedge Wolf Pack after conflicts with local livestock. Sickeningly, the WDFW has slaughtered 34 wolves, almost all of which were due to livestock conflicts and 29 of them for conflicts with the same livestock operator. It is clear the WDFW could care less about the survival of wolves in the state and would rather pander to the livestock industry than come up with a reasonable solution in managing the wolf / livestock conflicts.

The gray wolf is considered "ENDANGERED" by the ESA which means they are intended to be protected and managed by the WDFW. Unfortunately, it seems that the WDFW only knows how to kill these endangered wolves to manage the livestock conflicts as opposed to the plethora of options they could investigate to avoid needless slaughter. Has anyone tried reinforcing the perimeter fences of these livestock establishments? I'm unsure as to how the wolves have been able to repeatedly breach the security fences allowing them to attack cattle and yet there has been no strengthening of the security, instead opting to shoot and kill endangered wolves. Something doesn't add up.

The WDFW is proving to be negligent in their defense of wolves, pandering to the livestock industry at the expense of endangered animals. When you consider that 29 of the 34 wolves killed were for conflicts with the same livestock operator, that's an indication that there needs to be a change in the access to livestock for these hungry wolves. We're talking about watching the same problem happen 29 times without anything being done other than killing the wolves. The WDFW is tasked with protecting the wolves and yet their only course of action is to kill them. Pretty sickening that we're killing endangered animals for killing the animals we are going to kill for food, it's a vicious cycle that seems to lead back to the slaughter of wolves.

I am appalled by the lack of actual effort from the WDFW. If after 34 conflicts you still can't figure out a logical way to prevent continued conflicts with livestock, I don't think you should be the one in charge of protecting wolves and preventing conflicts. They don't appear to be taking this incredibly important task very seriously, instead, they are helping along the extinction of  the very grey wolves in the state they are tasked with protecting. It's obvious that the WDFW is motivated by the lucrative livestock industry and the protection of grey wolves is  a distant second in their priority books.

It's time to strip the WDFW of their responsibility and allow a real conservation group to take charge and come up with real solutions to these continued conflicts, otherwise grey wolves will undoubtedly go extinct in the state of Washington.

HAPPY VEG