PETITION CLOSED
PETITION TARGET: Idaho Governor Brad Little
UPDATE (5/10/2021): In a horrific move for gray wolves, Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed the bill allowing 90% of Idaho’s wolves — or more than 1,000 animals — to be shot and killed via brutal methods decried by dozens of environmental groups and also the state’s Fish and Game department and the Idaho Sportsmen group.
The bill allows private contractors and trophy hunters to use vicious steel traps, shoot wolves from helicopters and snowmobiles, and also use night-vision equipment to kill the animals in their family dens — including newborn pups that are found on private land.
In signing the legislation, which rushed through the Senate and House with enough votes to overturn a veto, Little went against pleas from more than 30 former federal, state and tribal wildlife managers who sent him a letter asking him to veto the monstrous proposal.
The Huffington Post reported that despite the agricultural industry’s claims that the law was needed to reduce killings of cows and sheep, wolves in the past two years have only killed about 0.02% of the state’s livestock — with many more succumbing to disease, birthing complications, or exposure to inclement weather.
We thank the more than 34,000 people who signed our petition against this gruesome new law, and we will continue to fight for wolves and all other animals imperiled by human action.
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Idaho legislation speeding toward the Governor’s desk could soon decimate Idaho’s wolf populations using what experts are calling the “cruelest methods imaginable.”
If passed, the bill would allow private contractors, trophy hunters, and outside agencies to kill up to 90% of Idaho’s wolves using brutal methods — including snaring them in vicious steel traps, using night-vision equipment to kill them in their dens when they are with their packs, and shooting them from ATVs, snowmobiles or airplanes.
The bill — introduced just a week ago — also allows hunters to kill unlimited numbers of wolves year-round until wolf populations — which have held steady for the past two years at around 1,500 members — are slashed to just 150 wolves.
The Idaho Fish and Game Commission opposes the plan, backed by the state’s agriculture industry, and its speedy approval by legislators, saying tenets conflict with previous commission decisions that involve the federal government that could result in a federal agency taking back control of the state’s management of wolves.
Wolves do not deserve to be massively slaughtered, gunned down, or left to languish — injured and starved — in steel traps. We must speak up now for Idaho’s wolves.
Sign this petition urging Idaho Governor Brad Little to veto this monstrous proposal that would have devastating impacts on Idaho’s wolves, including pushing an already vulnerable species toward extinction.
