The Return of the American Wolf Hunt
From The New Republic:
The American gray wolf represents a rare environmental miracle. After decades of harassment, hunting, trapping, and poisoning to near-extirpation in the Lower 48, the population was saved in the last 60 years through a combination of policy and active repopulation campaigns. But since the Trump administration delisted the animal under the Endangered Species Act last October, some states have declared open season on Canis lupus.
Wisconsin is the only state that mandates a wolf hunt when regulations allow. This past February, following the federal delisting, the state issued 2,380 permits and a quota of 119 kills. At the peak of the gray wolf’s breeding season, hunters fanned out through the forests and trappers deployed teams of GPS-tracked hunting dogs. In just 63 hours, they took down 218 wolves—80 percent more than the target. Poaching and the blow to the population’s reproductive capacity will make it more difficult for them to rebound. Yet Wisconsin is already planning for a second “harvest” this fall.
