Delisting Wolves, Part Deux

Delisting and reclassifying wolves obviously means that some wolves are going to get shot. There are certainly some ranchers here in Idaho that simply can’t wait for the opportunity. But it also means that there are enough of them now that it's not a concern. It means that the re-introduction efforts were successful.

Provided that wolves are not hunted to extinction the way they were in the late seventeen and early eighteen hundreds, this may actually be good. If you study other game animals that are legal to hunt, (deer, elk, etc) those herds are stronger than ever as a result of hunting. I know it’s a hard concept to grasp, but in a nutshell, controlled amounts of hunting actually keep the herds (packs) from growing to sizes that are too big for the region they inhabit to support.

If game animals are allowed to multiply in un-checked quantities they will actually deplete their habitat of the resources they need to survive and end up killing themselves anyway. If there are enough wolves in the wild that hunting is eventually allowed, it’s honestly better for the wolves. And for us too!

As you probably already know, I am a hunter. But I have no intention of shooting wolves just because of a change in the law. If I eventually see that there are too many wolves in a given area, and I feel that thinning the pack would be beneficial, I *MIGHT* change my mind about that. But for now, I just can’t bring myself to do it. Shooting wolves currently serves no purpose for me.