Running Down and Over Wildlife to be Protected by Wyoming Law?

Wyoming Wildlife Advocates & Jackson Hole Bear Solutions

WYOMING CONTINUES TO SHOW IT HAS NO INTEREST IN PREVENTING TORTURE

Wyoming Stuck in the Past

How long should Wyoming wait to outlaw torture? A year, two years, a decade? Longer? The thing is that Wyoming has that chance right now. But they are choosing not to. They are making excuses for why someone might “need” to use a snowmobile to chase coyotes or wolves. They are justifying cruelty with no remorse. This isn’t about an activity that rarely happens in Wyoming. This is a well-known activity that has been occurring here for decades. And lawmakers know it.

From Mike Koshmrl’s WyoFile article, we hear from a man who would rather chase and kill coyotes than go out snowmobiling in the mountains. What kind of state allows this to be a hobby or even part of predator control? What does that say about our decency as human beings?

“I’d rather run coyotes than go ride mountain snow,” Hall told WyoFile. “It’s that much fun to me.”

Running coyotes, a hobby he picked up about five years ago, is “beyond a challenge,” he said. It’s rough riding. Plus, when the 49-year-old spots an animal, it’s invariably wheeling — running as fast as it possibly can — and looking to cross a fence line and get to the nearest cover.

About two-thirds of the fleeing coyotes escape, according to Hall’s estimation.

Hall runs down the rest.

“I drive up on them and I park them underneath the track and I shoot them in the head,” he said.

READ THE COMPLETE WYOFILE ARTICLE HERE

WWA COMMITTED TO ENDING WILDLIFE TORTURE

The day we learned about what Cody Roberts did in Daniel that February night, we knew we had to stop it from ever happening again, especially because it happened in our home state just seventy miles south of our headquarters. We immediately stepped into the space of acting to change things and using this terrible act to end cruelty to wildlife in the Equality State. Read on for a list of the things we have done to bring changes in laws to Wyoming and nationwide.

Created the Wyoming Wildlife Campaign that has run ads on the Cowboy State Daily since May to educate the public about what is happening
Been working closely with a strategist to develop campaign goals and actions
Posted billboards in Casper, Laramie, and Cheyenne
Speaking to lawmakers and attending public meetings
Posting updates to social media to keep people informed
Visited Washington D.C. and met with a dozen lawmakers to talk about a federal anti-cruelty to wildlife law – what happened in Wyoming happens in other states – more to come on this!
Participated in Hogs for Hope motorcycle rally in Daniel to bring a message of peace and change
Participated in a rally in Washington D.C. to bring about awareness of the plight of wolves and other predators
Been the lead organization for the state efforts and offered public comment, letters to the editor, and quotes for articles
Collaborating with other organizations in the state

Upcoming actions:

Continue running ads and educating the public
Continue billboards – educate public
Production of voices of Wyoming for legislators
Education of legislators on this issue
Lobbying for a bill that actually prevents cruelty to all wildlife (within the limits of our nonprofit status)
Attending more legislative meetings
Coordinating actions by the public
Informing other organizations how they can help in Wyoming
Much more in the works!

TREATMENT OF PREDATOR WORKING GROUP NOT GOING FAR ENOUGH TO PREVENT CRUELTY

Currently the Working Group has only brought forward one recommendation to add broad language to a statute that would require predators to be killed “quick and humane.” The bill as written would make it legal to run down and run over an animal with a vehicle as long as after you run it over, you kill it quickly.

The Treatment of Predators Working Group has not even begun to explore what is needed to outlaw cruelty to predators. Instead the group chose to focus on removing the word humane from the statute because it could be interpreted too broadly.

Brian Nesvik, director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department offered an amendment to strike humane out of the draft bill. This was seconded by Jesse Johnson from the Wyoming Wildlife Federation. Her words were, “I’ll second that surely because I’m worried about how broad of a term it is and the use of it when we’re getting down to the brass tacks of it. Although I really appreciate the sentiment, the word itself doesn’t quite cover that for me.”

Brian Nesvik said, “humane is not broadly understood by most people. Humane means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I don’t think humane has a fairly common understanding by most folks. I will just tell you there are certain folks that think hunting is inhumane and I think that is quite a bit different from what the intent was with adding that word into these two statutes.”

John Winter followed up and said, “It’s my opinion that we should do away with the term humane as been advised and also to do away with what Representative Newsome brought up with the wolf and the dogs and so forth, I forget what all that amounted to, but I think we need to do away with those particular terms…”

Respectfully, we disagree with Director Nesvik and other members of the working group. A suggested definition of humane is quite simple and should be applied to every animal, domestic or wild, every time.

“Humane manner” means a manner of take that does not cause the animal unnecessary pain, suffering, or distress. In the context of lethal take, “humane manner” additionally means a manner of take that is reasonably calculated to kill the animal immediately and without prolonged pain, suffering, or distress.

Leaders in Wyoming are so afraid of not being able to kill predators in any way possible at any time that they won’t even put the word humane into statute. We’ve hit a new low here in the equality state and still have a lot of work to do.

W ATCH THE SEPTEMBER 4 TREATMENT OF PREDATORS MEETING HERE

READ OUR COMMENTS TO THE COMMITTEE HERE

READ WYOFILE ARTICLE HERE

READ COWBOY STATE DAILY ARTICLE HERE

The next meeting of the TRW Committee is Monday, September 30 in Cheyenne. This issue is scheduled for 1:30pm Mountain Time.