Protect Idaho's Wolves
Please don’t buy potatoes grown in Idaho until this state’s violence against wolves stops.Contact: Gov. Butch Otter or call Gov. Otter at 208-334-2100 to sound off.
Governor, respecting wolves and hating them isn’t the same.
Gov. Otter prepares to buy wolf tag and hunt this fall
By Rocky Barker
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter endorsed the 220-wolf limit set by the Idaho Fish and Game Commission and repeated his vow to go wolf hunting this fall.
The commission set the number lower than Idaho hunters and lawmakers had been pushing for in a effort to avoid an injunction that would stop the season by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy. Defenders of Wildlife said after the decision it would ask Molloy to stop the hunt while he decides on the lawsuit it and other groups have filed asking to put wolves in Idaho and Montana back on the Endangered Species list. (cont.)
“I understand the commission’s conservative and thoughtful action that they took because obviously we want to demonstrate we can manage them,” Otter said. “We also want to find out if we can manage them with our hunter community.”
Otter made national news in January of 2007 when he told a group of Idaho hunters on the Capitol steps, “I’m prepared to bid for the first ticket to shoot a wolf myself.” He said Wednesday in an interview he planned to buy an $11.75 tag along with thousands of Idaho hunters.
Otter said he shares the concerns of hunters that wolves are reducing elk populations in the state but he urged them to hold their anxieties in check.
“I believe that the fact we’re going to have a hunting season is important,” Otter said. “We’re going to be given a chance in this hunting season to demonstrate that we can be responsible and the feds are not going to have to come in and manage.”
Otter urged wolf advocates to remember how far the wolf population has come and the promises they made to westerners when they pushing reintroduction in the early 1990s. The original goal set in 1994 was 10 packs in each of three states or about 120 wolves.
“We exceeded their proposed numbers and they were the ones that set those numbers, we didn’t,” Otter said. “In fact our number in 94 was zero.”
Now wolves exceed 1,000 in Idaho alone and they have migrated as far away as Colorado as well as to all of the states surrounding Idaho.
Otter plans to hunt elk and deer in the Lime Creek drainage near his Pine cabin and around the Lemhi County hunting camp of his friend, Department of Administration director, Mike Gwartney.
“They’ve spotted a lot of wolves so I suspect that as we go headed out for elk camp we’ll make sure that everyone that wants one has a wolf tag,” Otter said.
Otter said for many hunters, wolves will be respected as a trophy, which is what the state designates them. That respect will grow over time.
“I think everybody respects them,” Otter said. “You can still hate them and respect their cunning and their place in nature.
“I’m not real fond of rattlesnakes but I understand their place in the system.”
For the full interview read Thursday’s Idaho Statesman.
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23 Comments
On August 22, 2009, RE Penney wrote:
We were planning a trip to Idaho to view the wolves-now I find you are going to shoot them. I will take my family elsewhere.
On August 22, 2009, Dan Finnegan wrote:
I left the gov a message…I hope he personally hears it…
On August 23, 2009, Karen Rhoades wrote:
Governor Otter,
I respectfully ask you to reconsider your support and personal hunting of wolves in Idaho.
I understand that you’re concerned about the elk population and fear that the wolves won’t leave enough elk for hunters.
I can tell you that in a state that doesn’t have wolves(regretfully so) that there is an overpopulation of elk which resulted in the herd in and around Estes Park/Rocky Mountain National Park being thinned and killed.
Now don’t you think that it’s better to leave the natural balance which has been restored..rather than to have a replay of man taking it away as was the case in the past by hunting and killing the wolves in Idaho. I certainly do.
I will not be buying any products from Idaho until I hear that you’ve changed your outlook.
Thank you for your time.
On August 23, 2009, Robert White wrote:
Wolves have been a nobel Hunter and scared animal to almost all the Indian tribes through out the United States.I truly respect them and honestly do not think of the killing of a Wolf as atrophy is a good idea,I believe if they are truly over populatede they should be live trapped and moved to diffrent areas as is being done with bears and other animals,The wolf only kills for food I have studied the wolf in and out of school.Have seen them in the wild and in captivity.
I have watched many documentaries and feel someone is doing something to say the least wrong in saying the wolves are killing your livestock.
Yours truly
Robert
On August 24, 2009, Gary Turner wrote:
Butch Otter is an incompetent moron!
On August 24, 2009, Leno Sislin wrote:
SIR:
HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT OUR PLANET EARTH IS IN DIRE STRAITS? HAVE YOU LOOKED AT THE ‘EXTINCT SPECIES’ LIST LATELY? ARE YOU NOT AT ALL INTERESTED IN PRESERVING THOSE CREATURES WHICH WE HAVE LEFT?
THIS IIS NOT SOME VIDEO GAME, WHERE ONE CAN START OVER…THIS IS REAL AND I, FOR ONE, DEPLORE YOUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE KILLING OF WOLVES.
TO “RESPECT” MEANS TO CARE FOR, TO TO SEE TO THE WELL BEING OF,TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF - AT THE VERY LEAST.
I BEG YOU, WHOLEHEARTEDLY, TO RECONSIDER THIS UNTIMELY MASS SLAUGHTER OF A SPECIES WHICH IS ‘ON THE BRINK’, AT BEST.
THANK YOU
On August 25, 2009, GARY TURNER wrote:
A guy was trying to cross the border to get into the United States. The border patrol would not let him through without a passport. The guy said, “I lost my passport but I am an american & I can prove it. I have a tatoo of Barack Obama on My right butt cheek & one of George Bush on the left.” The border guard said, “Pull down your pants & let me see.” Then he said, “Ok, you can cross & go back to Idaho.” The man said “Thanks, but how do you know I’m from Idaho?” The border guard said “You got an image of Obama on the right side of your butt, George Bush on the left & right in the middle is Idaho’s Governor, Bush Otter!”
On August 29, 2009, kym wrote:
this man named Mr Otter, is (if we should give him that much respect), is a hunter mad about the population of the elk for his hunt, he has to take it out on the population of the wolves. We are talking packs with off spring that will be murdered for a mere 11.75 cents….
This man cares about no one but himself, and the pack of others that follow him…
On Tuesday we must put a stop to this mayham, and with force go out and save a wolf from slaughter….
On August 30, 2009, Linda Inness wrote:
I am appalled at the casual attitude toward murdering our fellow creatures. Have you not looked at the endangered species’ list lately? Are you not aware of the fragile balance of earth’s ecosystems? We no longer need to be a hunter-gatherer society and nature will take care of her own - and better without the interference of man. I will not buy another product from Idaho, as I do not buy Canadian products until the clubbing of baby seals is banned, as long as you condone the murder of these majestic animals.
On August 30, 2009, Robert Cardillo wrote:
Leave the wolves alone Sir!!!!!!
On August 31, 2009, WOLFBOI1970 wrote:
Killing ANY animal that you dont use to eat, just “for fun” IS SICK, IGNORANT, BARBARIC, and shows you have NO class. If anyone has a complete list of IDAHO Products please post them…I will BOYCOTT ANY AND EVERY THING for thoses scumbags….
On August 31, 2009, Lee Hall, Friends of Animals wrote:
I’d like to thank those blog contributors who have taken the time to state their views and intentions without name-calling. Name-calling grates on others and rarely persuades. And let’s recall that people who disrespect wolves (or anyone) come in all economic classes and of all mental aptitudes.
Perhaps respect for ourselves and each other is how respect for the wider community of animals will begin. On the other hand, disrespecting each other could come from the same impulse of self-protection that makes us fear wolves regard them as unwelcome, unworthy outsiders.
Why do we do this? Why do we not seek peace?
On September 2, 2009, Darrin wrote:
Punnishing a farmer that lives in a state that promotes the killing of wolves is not the answer. Farmers are already hurt enough. Don’t blame the state, blame the US Fish and Wildlife Service for delisting.
[Blog editors’ note: The answer dear Darrin is to turn the lights on with your enchanting Gov. Butch Otter, who set the killing in motion — 10,700 wolf tags sold to persecute 220 wolves — by boasting that he’d be first in line to fire the first shot. What a slob; what a misery.
Then yesterday Robert Millage of Kamiah killed a female wolf in afamily from 25 yards away and said: “it was really an adrenaline rush to have those wolves all around me, howling and milling about after I fired the shot.”
Friends of Animals continues to call for a boycott of all potatoes grown in Idaho. Buy potatoes from local markets and from Oregon, Washington, Maine, North Dakota and other states.
So don’t tell us how to express our disgust in the state of Idaho, its governor and the regressive fools who think it’s an adrenaline rush to shatter a family of wolves, and boast about it as the remaining members of the group howl in disbelief. Shame on you; shame on the dangerous nutters who call themselves hunters.]
On September 3, 2009, Ridgerunner wrote:
[Blog editors’ note: Here’s a particularly
dense, dishonest entry from someone who thinks
loving animals is the same as violating them. That’s
the rhetoric of Idaho’s governor, too. Truth is, wolves do not kill a so-called “game” animal each week to survive. Some wolf groups hunt rabbits more than wild sheep, moose or caribou in Alaska’s Denali National Park.
It’s FoA that supports field research on wolves and Ridgerunner is only repeating what his wolf-hating friends recite. Also, wolves hunt to survive. Idaho’s hunter, Robert Millage of Kamiah slaughtered a wolf this week for the “adrenaline rush. ]
Preadventure Idaho hunters remove 220 wolves from THEIR state this year, and since each wolf kills one animal on average each week (documented by research), times 52 weeks per year; this means Idaho hunters may save the lives of over 11,000 big game animals each year in Idaho! Now that is what I call conservation of natural resources! Good luck in Idaho! Millions of wildlife loving people in many other states are behind you!
On September 4, 2009, Diane Zuppardo wrote:
I am totally against any kind of hunting, but “decent” hunters don’t do what you and your cronies are doing — just for the sport. You should be ashamed of yourself. I went to a Catholic grammar school and was taught that God made every living thing for a reason. I don’t think God respects or condones hunting any of His creatures for trophies! And laugh about it???? How totally barbaric and sick! Think about that! I will boycott anything from Idaho now and always. And don’t you and your fellow cronies understand that the wolf is a symbol of America? Why don’t you and your cronies educate themselves about the ecosystem?
On September 8, 2009, Karen Barry wrote:
These beautiful, and magnificient wolves were endangered for 30 years, and they still remain threatened now, with murder.
Do we never learn anything, are we so anxious to relist them, we put them in the same place, the same danger of becoming extinct? It has happened before, and it will happen again(wolves being endangered). Where is the Americans, common sense gone? And when will it return? WE NEED TO DO WHAT EVER IT TAKES TO LEGALLY AND PEACEFULLY, STOP THE WOLVES FROM BEING SLAUGHTERED.
On September 11, 2009, Marianne Beasley wrote:
Count me and my family in on the “boycott anything from Idaho” campaign to protest the killing of wolves. Wish we had a link to Facebook. Marianne in Arkansas
On September 14, 2009, Doug wrote:
I think a better boycott would target tourism in Idaho. Rafting the Salmon, visiting Sun Valley or McCall are big business here (I do live in Idaho).
Lots of yahoos eat potatoes, but not many take a guided adventure vacation on the Salmon or Selway. The targets of such a boycott would be those who widely support the most vocal anti-wolf groups; guides, charter air services, and tourism.
This is an irrational topic here. Idaho (and much of the West) has an economy strongly based on extraction of wealth from the environment. The ranchers, hunters, and many people believe that they rightfully own anything that isn’t individually owned by someone else. This includes the land (range land), the wild animals, even the water. In many people’s view, wolves compete for (read: steal) these resources. They feel that they conquered the wilderness once, now they have to do it again.
On September 15, 2009, Priscilla Feral wrote:
Doug — Idaho’s tourism season ended when Labor Day arrived, yet Idaho provides potatoes for 1/3 of the country, at a time when wolves are hunted. Montana’s wolf-shoot starts today so skiers who schedule trips in Montana can stay away. The state of Montana doesn’t have other products that consumers can boycott other than cow flesh — and one hopes no one is looking to any state to fill their plates with that misery.
Priscilla Feral
Friends of Animals
On September 17, 2009, Dylan Keel wrote:
So, we’re going to kill 1/4 of the wolves in Idaho for fun huh? Count me and everyone i can tell in on the boycott. I’m never touching another potato! Wolves make elk herd healthier too, taking only the sick and injured animals (that is if they are not starved and hunted with their territory destroyed). What the f@#% is Butch Otter thinking!?!?!?!
goddess/god bless our wolves
On September 28, 2009, kris wrote:
Boycott Idaho! They also make WINE so, watch wine labels from Sawtooth Winery in Idaho. I called markets and fast food and many other restaurants asking them not to buy anything from Idaho. McDonalds will not tell me where they buy for their french fry’s so, I told them I will not buy from them. There is a lot of electronics also produced in Idaho. Hopefully, their tourism will suffer. Boycott as much as we can from Idaho. This is going to be a bloodbath starting in 2 days, all the other countries in Idaho, open for this wolf hunt. We will see proud Idaho trophy hunters holding up dead wolves and their haunting smiles, blood dripping on their shoes so proud to be a killer. Idaho needs to learn that there are Americans that will not stand for senseless killing of animals. The government does not care, which just means, those of us that do, have to work harder.
On December 5, 2009, Lyn wrote:
What is wrong w/these people? these animal were here long before the farmers ,or the killer hunters.. I will never buy or eat another Idaho potato
On May 2, 2010, Sara wrote:
Me and my partner was thinking of coming to Idaho to come and see the Wolves, we live in England. We will boycott this place until they change their policy, as we have no intention of spending our hard earned money here!