Little Red Rider and the Big Bad Wolf Hunt
The Huffington Post
by Brenda Peterson
The wolf hunt that begins this week in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana is as grim as the Grimm’s fairy tale. Ever since the bloody wolf-delisting rider was slipped into a recent budget bill, this myth is driving wildlife politics. And it’s still the same ending: The wolf must die. The heroic hunter rescues the grandmother and little girl. Everyone lives happily ever after, except, of course, the wild wolf.
In the medieval mindset of Little Red Riding Hood, the fairy tale forest was a looming wilderness — a villain overshadowing the little village. Walking through the woods was dangerous. You never knew who might follow you home, devour and pretend to be your grandmother, and eat you alive.
This fairy tale was a time before humans domesticated nature, made tree farms out of forests and drove entire species, like the wolf, to extinction. This was before Alaskan wolf hunters in airplanes gunned down entire packs of radio-collared wolves. Before we poisoned, trapped, and shot wolves for sport. This was before we understood the science of wolves and their predator-prey balance that actually restores healthy ecosystems.
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5 Comments
On September 3, 2011, Breanne wrote:
Please save the wolf! It is a beautiful creature that needs protecting!
On September 4, 2011, Anne DiNucci wrote:
First, we have to figure out the mentality we are dealing with. We have backwoods people that think slaughtering a defenseless animal from a helicopter, lay in wait for them with a high powered rifle, trap the wolf in a barbaric leg trap and leave them to suffer for 3 days makes them REAL men. All I can think of is the movie, “Deliverance”. (I hear banjos!) They apparently have a little girl in a red cape along with a half eaten grandma in the back of their empty skulls. Although, when I think of WY, ID and MT, I think of ‘The Three Little Pigs”.
On September 6, 2011, Breanne wrote:
My birthday was two days ago and for my brithday i wrote to the governors to ask them to reconsider! best birthday ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On September 10, 2011, Heart wrote:
My mom bought some Idaho potatoes the other day but I made sure that she returned them immediately. I won’t, under any circumstances, spend my money or eat food that came from a state full of trigger-happy murderers!!! (no offense to those goodhearted residents of Idaho) But those damn governors will regret ever messing with wolves! >:(
On September 21, 2011, Anne DiNucci wrote:
Unfortunately we have to check EVERY THING we buy. Where the item is grown, or manufactured. If it says; Idaho, Montana, Wyoming…and watch for Oregon (PUT IT BACK