Wolves have role in nature; exclude being hunted

ON OCT. 26, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported they were proposing several changes to the protections for the Mexican Wolf populations in the Southwestern United States. Within the new protections are some important updates that remove limits on numbers, allowing the wolf populations to grow and expand, and fill their niche in the balance of nature.

However, I am stunned that the agency will still allow hunting permits to be issued for the removal of wolves that kill cattle, elk and deer. My father was a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Forest Service, both in the Carson National Forest in Taos and in the regional office here in Albuquerque, and one of his primary responsibilities was to oversee the elk populations in various locations. I learned from him that elk and deer are the primary food source for the wolf populations, so to continue to allow cattle ranchers even limited access to hunt wolves that prey on these species is ridiculous; it basically gives the ranchers carte blanche to hunt wolves. They need to see that, if the wolves kill their natural prey — elk and deer — they will less likely hunt their cattle.

The cattle industry should have no say in the management of the elk or deer populations, or, for that matter, the wolf populations, as they nearly drove them to extinction on the first place. Keep the cattle on private land and under a watchful eye if they feel they are under threat. The wolves, elk and deer were in these environments first, and should take priority over cattle, which, by their nature, is a prey species. RICHARD C. BUMSTEAD

Albuquerque