WY MAX?

It is usually most effective to be persuasive, but not rude, sarcastic or angry.  Speak from the heart of one who is more inclined to support our Game & Fish Department if and when doing what is best and right for all residents and visitors in Wyoming, now and into the future.  Original words directly from your own heart and mind are more likely to be given consideration than words and phrases that sound scripted.

Focus the energy of your words on wolf hunting, trapping, and snaring reform, and the shifting tide to twenty-first-century wildlife management and public tolerance.

How should you say it?

Wrap your own words around a spectrum of reasons to send wolf trophy trapping and hunting practices to the “gut pile”.  Reasons that might speak to:

• Max, this beautiful wolf in search of a mate “is a story of unfathomable pain and fear, heartbreak and the innocence of wild beings. It is also a reminder that humans, not wildlife, need serious management.” Stephen Capra
• emerging trends in wolf wildlife management;
  WU believes that the value of wolves to the health of our public landscapes outweighs the recreational opportunity to trap and kill with cruel and inhumane steel devices year-round without any scientific foundation.  We request that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission permanently end hunting of wolves in the Trophy Zone.
• the pure cruelty of trapping causing injuries, exposure, dehydration and mental stress, and often immense suffering;
  Should all trap-check time requirements be reduced to 24-hour trap checks, or should traps be eliminated from our landscapes?  Jeremy Bentham famously asked, “The question is not, ‘Can they reason?’ Nor, ‘Can they talk?’ But, “can they suffer?'”
• the absence of sportsmanship, fair chase, and compassion in trapping;
  Every animal in Wyoming, including endangered species, is a possible victim of traps and snares.  Is it fair chase not to know your target?  Or to sit at home on a couch and wait for a catch?
• wolves are not trophies;
  The sport hunting and trapping of wolves by the general public serves no purpose other than as an expression of “blood lust” and a catalyst for “bragging rights.” There is no derived food value, only ego gratification. Many members of WU were brought up in hunting families and were taught that you only kill what you will eat. WU still subscribes to that value. A trophy hunt of wolves feeds nothing more than the personal ego, and as it all too often occurs within the Predator Zone, is a disgrace to the ethical hunting community. Again, Wyoming’s wolves should have big game status with a year-round closed hunting season.
• wolves play a role as apex predators;
  Wyoming Untrapped opposes sport hunting of wolves for several reasons, including the significant role wolves play as apex predators within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and how the indiscriminate killing of wolves can have a significant impact on the natural functioning of ecosystems.
• they can control their own numbers;
  The indiscriminate hunting and trapping of wolves can have significant impacts that will reverberate throughout the ecological systems. Wolves are apex species and exist not as individuals but as social units-as packs. Leave them alone and they will flat out control their own numbers (Ordiz, A. et al. 2013.). Witness the Yellowstone wolf population: after 20-plus years, this sub-population has stabilized around 100 individuals–without human intervention, control or hunting and trapping. And the Northern elk herd, a primary food source for a large portion of Yellowstone’s wolves, is on a steady increase.
• Principles of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation (NAMWC);
  Wyoming Untrapped also opposes the hunting and trapping of wolves because it violates several principles of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation (NAMWC). First, wildlife is held as a Public Trust Resource by state or federal agencies and is not owned by anyone. This, in conjunction with wildlife being Allocated by Wildlife Law wherein the public – all the public has input into law-making causes us to ask: why, after years of the Commission “taking public comment,” we who have alternate views regarding wolf management have yet to see any significant changes made from any of the original Wyoming Gray Wolf Management Plan? This can hardly be viewed as respecting, let alone incorporating the public’s input.
• management condoning and remaining complicit in unethical killing activity;
  How can the State of Wyoming and the Game and Fish Commission support, let alone justify a Predator Zone for wolves? Even if the abhorrent killing practices are technically legal within the Predator Zone, they are by every reasonable standard amoral and demonstrate a complete disregard for the principle of “Fair Chase” and the ethical treatment of wildlife. If the Commission remains silent and does nothing to eliminate the Predator Zone, does not call-out the inhumane killing practices employed therein, and does nothing to remove the wolf’s Predator Status within 85% of the State, the Commission and the State are tacitly condoning and remain complicit in this unethical killing activity.
  
• reconfigure the HA’s and adjust hunting quotas;
  Disproportionally high wolf killings near the parks and refuge have undoubtedly impacted the ability of visitors to view wild wolves in the heart of their current range. We strongly urge the Commission to reconfigure the HA’s and adjust hunting quotas to better protect wolves and wolf packs that utilize the parks and refuge for significant portions of their life cycle.  Doing so will better serve the desires of tens-of-thousands of visitors who come to the region each year for a chance to view wolves in the wild- a critical part of the state’s tourist economy.
• responsible wolf management;
  Wolf management decisions need to be founded on more than hunting quotas, the protection of livestock and for the benefit of “high dollar” game species. Responsible wolf management needs to consider all mortality regardless of cause. It needs to consider ecosystem function- it needs to represent a consensus of the majority of the public, and should not include sport hunting.
• policies over best science;
  It is WU’s conclusion that the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, with its continued proposed hunting season- a plan structured to maintain just the minimum population necessary to prevent re-listing under the Endangered Species Act, is not doing enough to ensure the wolf’s long-term survival. We feel that the Commission is putting politics over best science.  We believe that the Commission is simply not living up to the public’s expectations to manage all wildlife, including wolves for the benefit of all citizens. And we feel the Commission’s proposed Chapter 47, Gray Wolf Hunting Season continues to jeopardize the well being of the wolves residing within our two premier National Parks and it greatly hinders Wyoming’s wolves from fulfilling their critical ecological niche.
• in summary;
  Wyoming Untrapped considers it morally and philosophically indefensible to have a sanctioned gray wolf hunting season, or to allow wolves to be indiscriminately killed as predatory animals throughout 85 percent of the state. And, although we firmly believe that the Commission’s Draft Chapter 47 Gray Wolf Hunting Season proposal ignores many of the fundamentals of both the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation and the Public Trust Doctrine and that it largely ignores the best available science, we submit these comments for your collective consideration because we regrettably acknowledge that this is the environment we are now having to work within
  
• wolves are not trophies;
  WU wants to make clear that while we respectfully submit these comments for your consideration, in no way should this be construed as support for sport hunting of wolves, whether as trophy game or as a predator.
• emerging trends in national wildlife management;
  Should we value and protect wildlife as vital contributors to the health of our public landscapes, and for the intrinsic character and worth of all furbearing animals?  Should we value the significant impact of wildlife watching on tourism – Wyoming’s 2nd largest industry?  Is Wyoming’s wildlife management not keeping pace with our modern society’s views?
• wildlife management should better represent the values of all citizens;
  Our wildlife is a public treasure owned equally by all citizens and taxpayers. Therefore, it is not just that a few people are allowed to indiscriminately trap and kill this wildlife. Trapping and snaring greatly reduces the number of animals and thus the number of wildlife sightings for the public – depriving them of much pleasure.
• unacceptable deaths and severe injuries to non-target species; even animals released alive may later die from their injuries;
  We don’t know how many non-target animals are trapped/snared, injured or killed in traps each year.  Should all of the ~thousands of non-target animals be required reporting by trappers?
• personal experience with a companion animal caught in a trap;
  Should warning signs be required in areas where there are traps and snares to increase public safety?  Traps are legal on all public trails where dogs can be walked.  Should there be 300 ft setbacks off trails, or trap-free areas where anyone can have a reasonable expectation of safety on our public lands?  Should trappers be accountable for injuries or death to your pet?
• the absence of sportsmanship, fair chase, and compassion in trapping;
  Every animal in Wyoming, including endangered species, is a possible victim of traps and snares.  Is it fair chase not to know your target?  Or to sit at home on a couch and wait for a catch?
• the pure cruelty of trapping causing injuries, exposure, dehydration and mental stress, and often immense suffering;
  Should all trap-check time requirements be reduced to 24 hour trap checks, or should traps be eliminated from our landscapes?  Jeremy Bentham famously asked, “The question is not, ‘Can they reason?’ Nor, ‘Can they talk?’ But, “can they suffer?'”
• how our public lands should remain safe havens for all;
  All people, pets and wildlife should have a reasonable expectation for safety on our public lands, which means trap-free areas for all.
• how the overall management of trapping is rarely cost-effective; 
  A furbearer trapping license costs $45 for all you can catch.  How can that be cost-effective for our state?  Should one license be required for each furbearer species with a limited quota?
• how trapping, which is not based on a science foundation, does little or nothing for effectively managing any species population;
  We don’t have a population count on our state furbearers, but we allow unlimited quotas.  Should we place quotas on all furbearer trapping?  Where is the science?
• how trapping has long ago lost its charm as a Wyoming tradition, let alone an American one;
  A growing debate about the legitimacy of trapping shows that a shift is coming.  Trapping for fun, trophies, fur and feeding one’s ego is no longer acceptable by a growing modern population.
• how trapping rarely serves any citizen other than the one who owns the trap;
  Is it time to create a statewide Trapping Advisory Committee to lend a citizen’s perspective to WGFD in reviewing the science and management of trapping, and predicting and anticipating public sentiment?