Advocates seek to stop Idaho, Montana wolf hunts
Picture:
This graphic shows a grey wolf, similar to the kind being hunted today.
Summary:
The grey wolves are extremely common in the northwestern parts of the United
States, and many times, a pest as well as a threat to life. Ever since the
first Americans settled in the pacific northwest, grey wolves have been hunted
by poachers and fur traders, almost to the point if extinction. Finally, in
1973, the wolves were listed as an endangered species. The populations began to
explode and soon enough, the wolves were terrorizing locals and farmers alike.
In 2011 alone, wolves
in Idaho and Montana killed 152 cattle and calves, 108 sheep, 12 dogs and 3
horses. Locals and government officials thought enough was enough, and allowed
people to hunt and kill wolves throughout the two states. The officials are going
to keep roughly 150 of the current 700 wolves. Now, advocates are looking to
stop the hunting, because they were once an endangered species. In their
defense, the Federals pledged to step in and stop the hunts if the number drops
below 100.
Opinion/Reflection:
This is a really touchy
topic, and I see both sides of this argument. These wolves are really causing a
big problem and need to be controlled somehow. Although, killing isn’t my
favorite choice, but there simply is not much to do. We surely couldn’t move them
because that would be asking for problems with invasive exotic species. This is
a painful process and people have many different feelings and perspectives on
this. Hopefully, the government does what the people think is right.
Questions:
1.) Do you agree that the killing of these grey wolves is right? Why?
2.) What would you do if you were a government official and had to decide whether or not to kill these wolves? Why?
3.) How does killing the wolves impact the surrounding ecosystems?
I do not agree with killing wolves.I think that it is wrong to kill any animal. Especialy if the species are endangered. A question i have is what would you do if you had the choise to helpthem. What way can you help this species survive and not hurt anyone.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure where i stand on the article, both sides have valid points they are pests, but they were endangered and who says that couldn't be set in motion again by this killing
ReplyDeleteOpinion/Reflection
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else that posted. This topic is faced with two problems and each will have bad results. I don’t believe in killing any of these wolves, but other animals will be killed if we don’t do anything about them. We should not kill these wolves because biodiversity is very important to both animals and humans, and the absence of wolves in an ecosystem will cause big problems. Wolves are also involved in many food webs, and the absence of them in the cycle could cause a huge disturbance in the ecosystem. Maybe if we could regulate the wolf hunting to a particular season or time of year, we could decline the wolf population and also save the other animals being harmed.
Expansion
I had three more questions to ask pertaining to this article:
1) Why did the wolf population drastically jump in a short period of time?
2) Could there be a way to confine these wolves?
3) How are the farmers affected after wolves kill their animals?