In Response to 2024 Wolf Torture, Killing, Wyoming Seeks to Write New Chapter

Last winter, the world seemed to train its collective attention on Wyoming and its wildlife. But that attention wasn’t focused on a majestic, fog-scarfed mountain valley traversed by migrating ungulates. It was something far more gruesome. 

In February 2024, Cody Roberts of Daniel, Wyoming, allegedly ran down a wolf with his snowmobile — an act still legal in Wyoming. After capturing the animal, which was still alive, Roberts muzzled it with duct tape and paraded it around a local bar before taking it outside and killing it. The incident made international headlines. Many were appalled, both that this type of animal cruelty was even permitted, and that Roberts received such a paltry penalty — a $250 fine — for his actions. 

In response, the Wyoming state Legislature took the issue up during the 2024 spring interim session, forming a Treatment of Predators Working Group. Now, during the 2025 General Session, the Legislature has a chance to vote on two bills seeking to make sure what Roberts did would never happen again in Wyoming. 

Kristin Combs, program director for Wyoming Wildlife Advocates, said this practice — the act of chasing down wildlife with a vehicle, also known as “whacking” — has been occurring in Wyoming for years, and it’s only been in the last eight to 10 that people have realized it would take a statutory change to make it go away. As it stands, there are few laws in Wyoming around harvesting animals.

House Bill 275, called "Treatment of animals" and sponsored by Rep. Andrew Byron, R-Jackson, was written in response to the Roberts incident. As of last week it had advanced unanimously out of the House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee to the House’s general file. 

As originally drafted, HB275 prohibited the torture and abuse of predatory animals when hunted or pursued by a vehicle, making it a first-offense felony to deliberately prolong the suffering of these animals. It was later amended by the committee to allow Wyoming Game and Fish Department game wardens more discretion to address incidents on a case-by-case basis. This amendment makes a first offense for animal cruelty a misdemeanor and a second offense a felony. It also has language stating that the court may revoke or suspend any Game and Fish licenses as part of the punishment.

An overwhelming majority of the bill’s support comes from sportsmen and -women who argue that the Roberts incident did not represent Wyoming — a place where many are raised in the outdoors near wildlife and hold values of stewardship and sportsmanship in the highest regard. 

A December 2024 poll, conducted by the grassroots coalition Wyoming Sportsmanship, found 74 percent of the state’s hunters and 75 percent of its Republicans support passing a clean kill bill like HB275. An April 2024 survey by the Humane Society of the United States found that 57 percent of Wyoming residents believe the current law should be changed to prevent animal cruelty.

“This is an issue that crosses all political boundaries,” Combs said. “Everyone agrees that we should treat animals humanely. As it stands, our laws do not match our values.” 

In addition to increasing the legal consequences for engaging in animal torture and cruelty, the bill also seeks to resolve the difference in treatment among animal species by adding wildlife to the animal cruelty statutes.

During testimony in front of the legislative committee on January 28, Paul Ulrich, a lifelong hunter and angler from Sublette County, said there is a subset of wildlife in Wyoming — wildlife the state is entrusted to manage and protect under public doctrine — that is not being legally protected: predatory animals. 

In Wyoming, a predatory animal is defined by statute as a coyote, jackrabbit, porcupine, raccoon, red fox, skunk, stray cat, and in certain areas, the gray wolf.

“The language is very simple,” Ulrich said. “You know how we’re allowed to take [predatory animals] in Wyoming under current statute? In any manner. It’s not a pleasant thing, and it’s not who we are. We have an opportunity today to provide that same level of protection that we do for a domestic cat for a stray cat."

Many believe the bill doesn’t go far enough, including wildlife advocate groups like Wyoming Wildlife Advocates, the Humane Society of the U.S., and Wyoming Untrapped. As of publication time for this article, HB275 still allows the act of pursuing and killing predatory animals using a vehicle, so long as they “make a reasonable effort to immediately kill the injured or incapacitated animal.”

House Bill 331, called "Taking of predators on public lands," was sponsored by Rep. Mike Schmid, R-La Barge, and seeks to rectify the discrepancy, prohibiting the harassment, injury, or killing of any Wyoming wildlife, including predatory animals, with vehicles on public lands. It does not, however, extend this protection to predatory animals on private lands. 

Schmid, who also co-sponsored HB275, said the bill originated from conversations he had with diverse constituents in his district, 20, following the Roberts incident, which occurred in Schmid’s district. He said the vast improvements in hunting technologies available today make it unnecessary to “use any kind of over-the-ground or over-the-snow vehicle as a weapon, especially on public ground.”

But he also mentioned the voice of the agriculture community, one of the only groups in opposition to this bill, who have advocated for keeping the right to this practice as predator management on private land.

“Our agriculture community did not like what happened [in Daniel],” Schmid said, “but they do not want to lose the ability to do what is necessary to protect their livelihood and stock of private lands.”

Ultimately, Schmid and others hope these two bills can start a healing process for the state.

“My hope is that it will bring our predator class in Wyoming to the level that they can be treated with the same respect as all other wildlife,” he said. “Our Wyoming wildlife, and I mean all of it, is a national treasure and deserves to be treated as such.”

Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, testified in support of HB275 saying it represents Wyoming’s respect for the treatment of wildlife. And although HB275 and HB331 were created because of the unethical actions of one individual, he believes the state can now help reframe its history. 

“I think it’s high time that we do whatever we can to underline this bill and send it through with a big headline to say this is what we expect out of our sportsmen, our public, our visitors,” Landon said of HB275. “We treat animals with respect.” 

As of publication time, HB331 had been introduced to the House and assigned to the House Agriculture Committee. In the Wyoming Legislature, a bill must be heard by a committee, assigned to the General File, and pass a third reading — or final vote — in the original chamber before “crossover day,” which this year falls on February 7. Otherwise, the bill dies on the vine.

HB275 passed unanimously out of the House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee last week and had passed a second reading on the House floor on February 5.