Wolf-Abuse Incident Prompts New Wyoming Bill

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Wyoming Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee at its Sept. 30 meeting approved the draft bill stating that individuals found in violation of the bill would be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by six months in prison and a fine of not more than $1,000. The committee made an amendment to the draft bill that added the consequence of potentially losing hunting privileges for zero to three years.

by Sophie Tsairis 

A draft bill is moving through the Wyoming Legislature explicitly protecting Wyoming residents’ right to purposefully run down predators with motor vehicles, but would mandate that these animals are killed immediately to prevent further suffering. 

The legislation, initiated by a state-appointed panel of nine legislators and stakeholders known as the Treatment of Predators Working Group, was drafted in response to a troubling incident this past spring in which Cody Roberts from Sublette County ran down a wolf with a snowmobile, maimed it, and later brought the injured and traumatized animal to a local bar. He later killed the wolf.

In “Wolf Whacking Must Go,” Franz Camenzind wrote about the incident for Mountain Journal.

Predator "whacking," the torturing and killing of animals with motor vehicles, is legal in Wyoming, and animal cruelty laws do not apply to predators in 85 percent of the state. Wyoming Game and Fish fined Roberts $250 for possession of a live predator. 

According to the proposed bill: “Any person who intentionally injures or disables a predatory animal … by use of an automotive vehicle, motor-propelled wheeled vehicle, or vehicle designed for travel over snow shall upon inflicting the injury or disability immediately use all reasonable efforts to kill the injured or disabled predatory animal.” 

Failing to “immediately use all reasonable efforts to kill” a run-down animal would constitute animal cruelty, the legislation states. 

The working group convened in Lander on June 25 to review Wyoming's wolf management and current predator laws and again on September 4 to discuss the draft bill. Their second meeting was virtual and allowed for limited public participation. The majority of public residents who spoke urged the bill to go further and ban the practice of running down predators with snowmobiles altogether. During the meeting, the working group acknowledged that this practice is not only a form of recreation but also sometimes used as a method of predator control by livestock producers. 

Rep. Liz Storer (D-Jackson) and chair of the Working Group told Mountain Journal the draft bill does not address the current legality in Wyoming of chasing predatory animals using motor vehicles, or purposefully running over those animals. Nor does it distinguish between doing so to protect livestock versus doing so for sport. She had hoped the bill would go further to protect wildlife.

“I asked the committee if they would consider language to allow agricultural producers to [run down livestock predators] but not others who do it for sport, but they were not supportive of crafting a bill along those lines,” Storer wrote in an email. “I had hoped that this might be an opportunity to better understand the animals with which we share this place and to explore how we can better co-exist; it’s why I volunteered to be the chair of the working group. I was, to date, sadly mistaken.”

In 2019, when videos of people running over coyotes for sport started appearing on social media, Rep. Mike Yin (D-Teton) and Sen. Mike Gierau (D-Teton) introduced a bill expanding the definition of animal cruelty to include deliberately using a snowmobile to kill or injure an animal. The bill was not considered for introduction.

The working group has approved the draft bill, and the Wyoming Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee will review it on September 30. If the committee approves the bill, it will proceed to the full legislative body in early 2025. If enacted, the new law will take effect in July 2025.

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