Save The Wolves

The May issue of Men’s Journal magazine has a poignant and compelling ad and an article; the items are about two related travesties – the Bush Administration’s plan to slaughter hundreds of gray wolves and the Bush Administration’s handing over our public lands for use and abuse by off-road vehicles. In each case, pandering to political and industrial special interests and friends is responsible.

You may recall the post I put up recently (please scroll down) about the wolves and I promised I’d post about them again when I learned more. The Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund headline "Using Tax Dollars To Shoot Animals On The Endangered Species List? The Bush Administration In Action", begins the one-page article that sums up the situation well. A visit to the organization’s website tells us more and goes on to say "Bush Administration Takes Aim at Wolves – In Greater Yellowstone and across the Northern Rockies, gray wolves are facing mounting habitat destruction from industrial development and other harmful activity. Nonetheless, the Bush Administration recently stripped these wolves of endangered species protection, leaving them vulnerable to mass killing. Both Wyoming and Idaho are planning to use aerial gunning, as well as baiting and trapping, to exterminate hundreds of wolves.The comeback of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies is America's greatest wildlife recovery story. But the Bush Administration's ‘License to Kill’ plan could drive these wolves back to the brink of extinction".

Gray wolves were almost completely wiped out of existence by every vile means imaginable. Finally put on the Endangered Species List, there are now about 1,500 of these beautiful animals in the northern Rockies area, where they have revitalized the region’s environment and enhanced the tourist industry. Bush has recently removed the wolves from the Endangered Species List and now plans to sanction a wolf-kill, in which wolves would be mass-killed by any horrific means. We must let Congress know we do not want this to happen.

The Bush-Cheney Administration has done and continues to do damage of epic proportions to all things environmental, ethical, and humane. Now is the time to speak up in defense of the wolves. The truth is that there is not an over-abundance of wolves; additionally, ranchers already have the right to kill any wolf that may harass livestock; and the elk population is at an all-time high across the northern Rocky Mountains, providing plenty of elk as targets for "sport" hunters to shoot at. The Bush Administration is obviously determined that not one component of our ecological and natural heritage be left unmolested ... using our tax dollars to fund the killing and destruction.

Please visit the website of Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund at
www.callofftheguns.org
for all of the facts and to tell your U.S. Representative to oppose Bush’s wolf-killing plan.