Washington Wolf Pack Under Attack
A Meat and Dairy Industries Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Center for Biological Diversity
August 2016

The decision to gun down these two pack members is part of a long-running war on wolves in which the profits of the cattle industry are placed above the well-being of wildlife.

This stretch of public land is perfect habitat for wolves because it's rough, wooded and remote. But the cattle industry wants to operate it like a publicly subsidized feedlot, setting up conflicts that lead to needless deaths. Whether they're up against ranchers, hunters, or timber and mining companies, the needs of wolves always seem to come last.

The news out of Washington state is grim: A helicopter gunman paid by the state has killed at least two wolves of the Profanity Peak pack, including the family's matriarch. This is the third time in two years that the breeding female of a pack has been killed due to state action, even though this is known to destroy wolf families and leave pups to die abandoned in their dens.

The Center for Biological Diversity is leading the fight to stop these kinds of wolf killings, and we need your support with a contribution today to the Wolf Defense Fund.

The decision to gun down these two pack members is part of a long-running war on wolves in which the profits of the cattle industry are placed above the well-being of wildlife. It's the third time a wolf family has been shattered in this corner of Washington state in the past four years -- the Wedge pack was wiped out in 2012, in 2014 the killing of the Huckleberry pack breeding female resulted in the pack splitting in two, and now the matriarch of the Profanity Peak pack has been gunned down.

This stretch of public land is perfect habitat for wolves because it's rough, wooded and remote. But the cattle industry wants to operate it like a publicly subsidized feedlot, setting up conflicts that lead to needless deaths. Whether they're up against ranchers, hunters, or timber and mining companies, the needs of wolves always seem to come last.

And it's not just in Washington state. The war on wolves across America has never really stopped since the 19th century. In Alaska's Denali National Park, the legendary East Fork pack, which biologists have continuously monitored since 1939, was just declared extinct. Because Alaska allows wolves to be shot or trapped as soon as they step outside the park, this pack was whittled down one by one until the last pups disappeared this spring. In a particularly infamous incident, a wolf hunter dumped a horse carcass at a site just outside the park and surrounded it with traps, capturing and killing the pack's breeding female, who was most likely pregnant at the time.

These vicious assaults on wolves must end. That's why we're asking you to contribute to the Wolf Defense Fund, so our lawyers and activists can take on the powerful interests invested in the extermination of wolves at taxpayer expense.

At the Center we've made wolves a focus of our work for more than a quarter-century. From fighting to bring back the lobo to the Southwest to ending Wyoming's gruesome wolf hunt, we've won more battles for wolves than anyone. In Washington, we're combating anti-wolf forces and lobbying hard to change rules that have led to these recent, ruthless wolf killings. We need your help to keep up this fight and prevent what's happened on public lands in northeast Washington from happening to other wolf packs across America.

Your contribution to the Wolf Defense Fund will go toward this critical work for wolves.

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