State shouldn’t manage wolves

Paul A Smith’s June 10 article “State’s gray wolf population increases to record high,” concludes with the state postponing updating its wolf management plan “until it has ‘greater clarity’ on its management authority.”

Wisconsin’s history of wolf management has consistently shown antagonism toward wolves.

Wolves were basically hunted and trapped to extinction in the state by the late 1950s, spared only by being listed as an endangered species.

Wisconsin’s current wolf management plan is almost 20 years old. It consists of an unscientific, arbitrary number of 350 as the state management goal, which was never meant to be a cap.

In 2012, Act 169 was signed into legislation that mandates a wolf hunt if wolves are delisted.

Wisconsin’s Wolf Advisory Committee is made up almost entirely of prowolf-hunting special interest groups with only one pro-wolf voice.

Our politicians hold “Wolf Summits” that are rife with anti-wolf sentiment and perpetuate the big, bad wolf myth. Some politicians even have been heard calling for a statewide wolf population of under 350.

If our politicians continue to cater to the moneyed, anti-wolf special interest groups, they will have no intention of updating the state’s current wolf management plan using the best available science, including nonlethal management and compassionate conservation.

Wisconsin has shown that it is not yet ready to manage its wolves. Let us hope the Washington, D.C., appellate court agrees.

Beth Phillips West Allis