User:KombuchaGod/Wolf hunting

History
In ranges of the United States where there are concentrated populations of wolves, The Fish and Wildlife service can divide wolves into Distinct Population Segments (DPSs) which allow protections to vary depending on the recovery status of each wolf population .In the 2000s, proposed DPSs designations for the gray wolf were coupled with delisting or down-listing actions, which removed federal protections against wolf hunting. District courts dismissed these proposals on the account that it went against the purpose of the ESA. The only remaining DPS is the Northern Rocky Mountain DPS, which includes a range shared between 6 states. The wolf population within this range is not listed as endangered and is not protected from hunting.

North America
The current situation in the western United States allows for the hunting and trapping of wolves during designated seasons. As of 2022 in Montana, hunters can hunt up to 10 wolves and trap up to 10 wolves for a combined total of up to 20 wolves. The majority of wolves hunted in Montana were originally re-introduced in the protected Yellowstone National Park but are not safe from hunting once the wolves exit the park’s land. It has been reported that some wolves have been hunted merely 10 miles from the park’s border with one in 2020 wearing a scientific radio collar. As of January 9, 2022 more Yellowstone wolves which have wandered outside of the Park have been hunted and killed than any season since their species reintroduction in 1995.

With regards to Wolf hunting in other Western States, the laws vary drastically. In Oregon although the gray wolf, canis lupus, was controversially removed from the state's endangered species list, the killing of wolves remains strictly illegal. This includes a ban on all trapping and hunting of the species in any part of the state for any reason. Contrary to Oregon’s strict laws, the state’s neighbor to the east, Idaho, has very different laws. In Idaho, the trapping of wolves on private property is legal year round. In addition to trapping, there is no limit to the number of tags wolf hunters can possess, therefore making the hunting of wolves legal year round in the state of Idaho. As a result of the change in legislation, the killing of wolves is incredibly similar to that of coyotes and foxes in the state currently.

Wolf Population Recovery

By the 1960s the population of wolves decreased dramatically because people in North America have hunted wolves for a variety of purposes. For example, wolf hunting allowed people to acquire fur, which was further used in a variety of practical ways. It also allowed people to gain control over the spread of diseases transmitted by the animals and enabled people to better protect their livestock. The circumstances finally started to change in the 1960s, as people finally start to realise that the wolf population had reached a crucially low point and had to be saved and put under the legal protection of the government. Environmental movement was transforming the public views on the issue and that was the starting point of the wolf population recovery. United States federal government took the issue under its control and enacted the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to help ​​protect and restore the wolf population. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 restricted the killing of wolves and labeled them as endangered animals in 48 contiguous states and Minnesota. The grey wolf (Canis lupus) was one of the main subspecies to be classified as endangered, along with others such as the northern Rocky Mountain wolf, Eastern Timber wolf, as well as Red wolf and Mexican wolf. Since the wolf recovery journey began, under the protection of the law, wolf population numbers went up throughout the northern United States. For example, Minnesota’s recovery efforts positively influenced the wolf population and resulted in an increase their numbers from 200 to 350 between 1974 and 1990.

Poisoning wolves with strychnine

Strychnine is a poisonous ingredient included in a variety of pesticides and is used as a grain baits most of the time. The strychnine was used to kill wolves and became one of the most effective methods for protecting livestock and also eradicating pests that threaten the environment. Pesticides containing strychnine are lethal to everything that consumes them. But since this sort of poison caused pain and brutal death for the animals who swallowed it strychnine baits, capable of killing wolves, were banned in 1972 by the US government and in 2006 by the European Union. Back in 2019, a Montana resident illegally used strychnine bait by placing the poison into cow meat in order to poison a wolf. The consequence of this unlawful behavior, according to U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen L. DeSoto, was the death of not just a wolf, but also resulted in additional collateral deaths of a pet dog and other small animals. The individual was fined $500 and ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.