A new bill was drafted in Wyoming's Legislature that would allow snowmobilers to run down wolves and coyotes as long as they were killed immediately. Here, a lone wolf in Yellowstone National Park's Hayden Valley turns to the camera. Photo by Ashton Hooker/NPS
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.
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.
“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." – Liz Storer, Wyoming House of Representatives
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.
Mountain Journalis a nonprofit, public-interest journalism organization dedicated to covering the wildlife and wild lands of Greater Yellowstone. We take pride in our work, yet to keep bold, independent journalism free, we need your support. Please donate here. Thank you.
About Sophie Tsairis
Sophie Tsairis is a freelance writer based in Bozeman, Montana. She earned a master's degree in environmental journalism from the University of Montana in 2017.
