Yearly Archives

Ten Wyoming legislators unanimously backed a bill Monday that would explicitly make it legal for people to hit wolves with snowmobiles and other motorized vehicles — so long as those people make “all reasonable efforts” to kill the animal after injuring or disabling it. In doing so, the legislative committee formally eschewed requiring people to kill wolves “humanely,” having previously failed to agree on a definition. The incident prompted international outrage and calls to overturn Wyoming laws that legalize using snowmobiles and other vehicles to hit wolves and other animals the state considers predators: coyotes, jackrabbits, porcupines, raccoons, red foxes, skunks and stray cats). Instead, the bill advanced Monday enshrines that right, flying in the face of former Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologists, wildlife advocates and hunters who have called for banning the practice.