A Bill to Ban Wildlife Whacking

WRITER’S NOTE: On June 11, I sent out my op-ed on “wildlife whacking”—the killing and maiming of certain predators with snowmobiles, legal in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.

As a lifelong hunter, naturalist and former game and fish agency information officer, I have to salute Wyoming resident Cody Roberts for accomplishing something I and all other wildlife advocates have failed at for decades.

In a single day, he turned most of the public—including conservative politicians—against the popular sport of “wolf whacking,” i.e., chasing them to exhaustion with snowmobiles, then running them over until they’re crippled or dead. Last week, Congressman Troy Nehls (R-TX)—a strong conservative, former sheriff, hunter and gun-rights enthusiast—announced he’s leading national legislation to rid our federal lands of ramming and crushing animals with snowmobiles.

Here’s how Roberts facilitated the bill: On February 29, after severely crippling an adolescent female wolf with his snowmobile, he duct-taped her mouth shut, strapping on a shock collar for additional torture. He then dragged the traumatized, bleeding, crying pup into his hometown watering hole—the Green River Bar in Daniel, Wyoming—where he mugged for patrons who photographed him jostling her and pretending to kiss her muzzle.

After the pup’s prolonged agony began to bore the crowd, Roberts dragged her back outside and killed her, allegedly with a gun.

Rep. Nehls’ bill would make it a felony on federal land, where most wolf-and-coyote whacking occurs, to use “a motor vehicle to intentionally drive, chase, run over, kill, or take a wild animal.” Violators would “be subject to a fine up to $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than 5 years, or both, for each violation.”

Trump appointee and Wyoming native Rob Wallace, former Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, said he was “sickened” by the viral photo of Roberts torturing the wolf pup, calling it “awful” and “disgusting.” “In no way,” he declared, “do I believe this represents who we are as a state.”

Wallace is right with his first assessment, not so much with his second. On 85 percent of its domain, Wyoming permits year-round killing of wolves by virtually any means including night hunting and burning pups and nursing mothers in their dens.

Wolf-and-coyote whacking is currently legal in Idaho as well as Wyoming. Technically, only coyote whacking is legal in Montana, but few participants can distinguish a young wolf from a coyote, and enforcement is almost impossible. A bill to ban coyote whacking was voted down by the Montana Legislature in 2019.

On March 4, the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish cited Roberts—not for violating the state’s Felony Cruelty to Animals statute for “a person who knowingly, and with intent to cause death or undue suffering, beats with cruelty, tortures, torments or mutilates an animal”—but only for the misdemeanor of possessing “live warm-blooded wildlife.”

So, the department fined Roberts $250, calling his wolf whacking an attempted “harvest” and proclaiming that instead of torturing the pup to death he had “euthanized” her.

The Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action is offering $30,000 for information leading to Roberts’ arrest, conviction and jailing for at least a year.

This from the groups’ president and founder, respectively, Wayne Pacelle: “If states persist in allowing running down and running over wolves with snowmobiles and other kinds of savagery, how can they expect the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and federal courts to allow them to have primary responsibility for managing wolves? State legislators and game and fish commissioners are inviting the restoration of federal endangered species protections for wolves with these types of morally and ecologically bankrupt policies.”

My fellow hunters need to take up the cry as well. I wish the media would cease referring to Roberts as a “Wyoming hunter.” Wolf-and-coyote whacking trashes our image. It isn’t hunting; it’s sadism.

In the Northern Rockies states, Yellowstone National Park was the reintroduction site for wolves and, for a time, one of the very few true refuges for wolves. No longer. Having encountered only tourists firing cameras, park wolves don’t fear humans. When they leave the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and move onto other federal land, they are shot or run over by snowmobiles as easily as if they were pet dogs.

Finally, at the very least, the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management should impose fair-chase wolf hunting regulations and ban wolf whacking, night hunting, and killing pups and nursing mothers in their dens. This kind of persecution is unimaginable.