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Hi John,
Oregon officials ordered last month's killing of two wolves from the Wildcat pack — the third pack to be targeted in the past eight weeks.
State-sponsored killing of wolves is abhorrent and must end. Help us save wolves today by giving to the Saving Life on Earth Fund.
The state of Oregon is ratcheting up its assault on wolves.
In late July, Oregon put the Five Points pack in the crosshairs after conflicts with livestock. Within a week, four of its 12 wolves were killed by hired hands from the USDA's Wildlife Services program acting on behalf of ranchers.
Then the state went in for more, issuing kill orders for half of the Lookout Mountain pack and for two members of the Wildcat pack.
The two Wildcat wolves have been killed, and death warrants remain in effect for members of the Lookout Mountain pack.
It's wrong and deeply disturbing. Wolves are highly social animals, and this kind of violence shatters their family structures and often orphans young pups.
Oregon used to be a model for coexistence between wolves and livestock operators. Now state officials are relying on cruel wolf-killing — with some shoot-on-sight orders lasting for three months — rather than pushing livestock owners to use nonlethal deterrents to reduce conflicts.
The result has been heartbreaking: Twenty-three wolves have been killed in the past two-and-a-half years by Oregon officials or under agency kill orders over livestock conflicts.
At last count, just 178 confirmed wolves live in the state. But rather than focus on recovering the wolf population, the state seems bent on appeasing ranchers and signing kill orders.
Wolves can flourish in Oregon's lush landscapes, but not if industry is allowed to call on government-run wildlife killing machines to take up arms and relentlessly persecute packs.
We're fighting for wolves and other species day in, day out.
Please help today with a gift to the Saving Life on Earth Fund.
For the wild,
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