Animal Rights Group Protests Plan To Shoot Montana Wolves

An animal rights group has condemned a plan to kill the adult members of the southwestern Montana wolf pack and wants federal agents to call off the hunt.

Friends of Animals called the planned shooting “heartless” and “wrongheaded.”

“There has been no depredation in three weeks, the rancher has been reimbursed, and he is not calling for these wolves to be killed,” President Priscilla Feral said in a statement.

“What we have here is a wolf recovery program that has zero tolerance for predation working hand in hand with a trigger-happy, taxpayer subsidized Animal Damage Control Program,” Feral said. “The only losers are the wolves and the people who care about them.”

The Boulder pack has been under the gun for almost a month. The adult wolves in the pack are suspected of killing nine calves this year in two separate attacks, triggering the decision to destroy them.

Officials intend to kill the adults and relocate the pups.

Wolf Recovery Coordinator Ed Bangs said he understands the position of the animal rights group but stands behind the program guidelines.

With nearly 100 wolves in northwestern Montana, Bangs said only an average of five cows and five sheep have been killed by then each year since the recovery program was adopted a decade ago.

“We sure aren’t happy about doing this,” Bangs said. “But the cards have been dealt, and we’re just trying to make the best decision we can.”

“If you look at this pack’s history I’d say the chances are very, very strong that these animals will kill livestock again,” Bangs said.

But since the original decision was made, biologist now believe only two of the pack’s adults were involved in the livestock attacks and those will be the ones destroyed. That will leave the alpha female to care for the pups.