As of today, March 12th, the state of Minnesota may be in charge of its wolf population. Trouble is, about 4 animal rights groups are already threatning lawsuit if the move is made. I don't know about you, but that sounds crazy to me. The animal rights groups, many of which aren't even based in Minnesota want to try and tell us what to do with our wolves? Even though the number of wolves is over 3,000 and the goal was about half of that. These people will not listen to reason, and are opposed to any measure that might control their numbers-unless it includes shooting them with birth control or somthing. Keep in mind, many people who are in these animal rights groups live in a city and don't have to deal with the wolves at all, all they care about is that we have a lot of them, and they don't have to put up with them. They have no idea the impact they have, or what is going on where they exsist. I bet they would object if we released coyote or wolves into their neighborhood, after all "they were there first." Are their any people here that see my point?
Wolves are certainly not endangered up here and the Alaska Dept. of fish and Game are allowing aerial hunts to control the population of them. It is estimated that 1000 wolves eat over 20,000 Caribou,and Moose Calves a year and I have seen them Eat all the animals out of an area before having to move on. Man is their only predator, they have no other enemy. Sure , we need Some Wolves, but not nearly as many as there are now. Friends of Animals ( I told them on A Radio Talk show they should be "Friends of Predators" since they don't care about the Caribou and Moose) threatened to boycott tourism in Alaska, so we have a T shirt that has a guy holding a gun to a Wolf's Head that says..." Visit Alaska or the Wolf gets it !"
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[I]You know you might be facing your doom,when all you get is a click when you're expecting a BOOM!:( [/I]
Good post Mooseman, it has a lot of truth to it. When people hear the number 3500 for wolves, they don't think it is very many, becasue in numbers, 3500 doesnt sound like a lot. But when you look at the range of the packs, and how much resources it takes to maintain them, 3500 is quite a bit. They are fine in reasonable amounts.
These are the same type of people who complain and moan after hitting a deer with their vehicle..."how come there are so many deer on the roads"...
These same types go nuts over large forest fires burning thousands of acres while at the same time saying "No Logging". Makes you wonder how their minds actually work.
__________________ NEVER FORGET THOSE THAT DIED FOR THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM
4 finger wide wolf track under 12 hrs old on the North Shore 50 miles north of Duluth Minnesota. Him and a female have been hanging around by my cabin this winter.
Wolf skull I found last fall right on the edge of a new loggers clearing. Probably died old fat and sassy.
I'd love to hunt wolf up by my cabin but once these groups zero in on you they will tie up your phones lines, send you 10,000 email an hour and make your life miserable.
There was a guy up here about 8 years ago that was bear hunting. He legally shot a bear that was being monitored on the internet with a radio collar (he never saw the collar but it didn't matter it was a legal bear anyway). The guy got totally harrassed from members of animal right groups afterwards.
About 6 years ago a female wolf was stalking and killing pet dogs in the town of Silver Bay MN. I think about 12 were killed and eaten before the federal trapper got it. The kids were seeing it while they were waiting at the bus stops.
It never made any of the local papers or wire down in St Paul/Mpls area. My god...people would get the wrong idea about the wolf.
I tried taking some pictures this winter of the 2 wolf above and did have the female come in one night but my new camera (Sony 7.2mp with 12x zoom) just could not cut it. I was 60 yards away from it.
My first year at my cabin (1989) I had six wolves single file walk by me. They were only 20 yards away and never saw me. It was the 1st time I ever saw a wolf in the wild. (Link to my actual cabin log that day: journals)
I'd pay the State of MN $500.0 for a one time wolf license. I'd get a full body mount afterwards. In the meantime I'm just going to keep trying to get some pic's, and hope the State opens a season.
There are cases like that all over where wolves are. Mostly, from what I've heard, they are either sick, starving, packless, old, or any combination of those reasons when they attack people. They will look instinctively for an easy meal, but can take down a perfectly healthy deer when in a pack. They can acutally out endure most animals when chasing them down.
I saw a documentary of when they Re-introduced the Canadian grey wolf into Minnesota - the Canadian fish and game fellas thought them americans were out of thier minds to introduce a predator like the grey wolf. They were right. There should be a full season on the animal rights groups and the wolves, with no bag limit on the animal righters.
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They should have stopped at "Congress shall make no law"
Lng Rng has given me an idea though. I'm going to do a little research and keep this post alive.
If the animal right groups can flood any State Game department they want and shut down different hunts we as hunters should be able to do the same to keep that hunt open. I say we flood all the different forums we all go to requesting our brothers contact such and such Game department in such and such State and we help one another continue our heritage of hunting. We can "Zumbo" them. (Hopefully we have indivdually responded to our Federal leaders on the assault rifle ban)
I'm tired of seeing cougar hunts and bear hunts banned in different States.
My God they are going to effect how much we pay in gas too if we let them continue to shut down hydroelectric power dam's because of a tiny 1" long fish possibly being endangered.
Look what they are doing with the Mexican border. They are protesting some wild cat won't be able to cross back and forth if we put up a fence.
