False terms disguise murder

Idaho’s planned “wolf kill” this fall will be a sad chapter in the state’s history. How such an event could be a “successful” “harvest,” as the Fish and Game commissioner of the Panhandle region distastefully described it, when it deals with the lives of intelligent creatures sacred to many is affirmation of how fundamentally self-centered and cruel our species can be.

Hunters, when you kill this defenseless wolf, a majestic figure in mankind’s collective conscience for thousands of years, and hang his hide on your wall, is this how you celebrate nature, by slaughtering something of no spiritual or empyreal value to you?

We share this land, and wolves, like humans, have a right to life, to THEIR life. Animals of this world are forced to adapt to, flee or perish from our poisons, our highways, our chainsaws and our rapacious lifestyles while we march through nature and take, take, take. It’s time for US to relearn how to adapt to our environment and fellow inhabitants instead.

The wolves to be hunted this fall are hardly “fair game” as the paper described them until we give them opposable thumbs and rifles; until then it’s just murder.

Connor Dinnison

Spokane