Dear friend,

Wolves, mountain lions, and bobcats are under assault in the West.

We are stepping up efforts to shield these animals from the most appalling and unthinkable of human actions:

• running wolves down with snowmobiles
• chasing lions with radio-collared dog packs and then shooting lions trapped in trees
• trapping and bludgeoning bobcats to death for their beautiful coats

As members of the canine and feline families, these animals are inedible. They are targeted for commerce or, even worse, for spite.

And let’s remember that these animals not only deserve their own places to live safe from human assault. They also provide ecological balance and ecosystem services that, if put in monetary terms, would be valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

They regulate prey species by reducing the frequency of vehicle crashes with deer or elk. They remove diseased animals from herds, especially when it comes to Chronic Wasting Disease, saving others from infection and the spread of disease to their herd mates.

Protecting Wolves

We are still formulating national legislation to ban the intentional running down and running over of wolves with snowmobiles and other motorized vehicles.

We learned about the monstrous practice of “whacking” wolves and other wildlife after the horror show in Wyoming. There, a thug named Cody Daniels ran down an adolescent female wolf with a snowmobile, grievously wounded her, and then tormented her in front of patrons at a local bar.

We are still seeking his prosecution for cruelty to animals, while also addressing the larger problem of “whacking” that he put on ruthless display for the American public.

Meanwhile, we’ve sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to safeguard wolves from snowmobile-killing, neck snaring, and other retrograde wolf-killing practices that Northern Rockies states still allow.

If the states don’t exert judgment and political will to halt such egregious practices, then how can they be trusted to safeguard wolves to prevent them from being so hyper-exploited that they’ll be wiped out?

Human conduct extirpated wolves from the entire lower 48 states decades ago, with wolves only surviving in northeast Minnesota.

Today with faster snowmobiles, more lethal weaponry, and with high-tech gadgets such as night-vision goggles and electronic tracking devices affixed to the collars on their hunting dogs, humans have more firepower than ever to wipe them out again.

Idaho allows year-round killing of wolves without limit. So does Wyoming. Montana’s governor even trapped a wolf right outside of Yellowstone National Park.

Do the states not have any sense of decency or limits on human cruelty?

Protecting Lions and Bobcats from Trophy Hunters and Trappers

I’ve reported that we helped form the political committee Cats Aren’t Trophies (CATs) and have been working to qualify a citizen initiative in Colorado to stop the trophy hunting of lions and the commercial trapping of bobcats and lynx.

Earlier this month, we submitted 188,000 signatures of voters to state authorities. We should hear any day now from Colorado officials if we’ve officially qualified for the ballot.

But let me tell you that we are not waiting for that nod. We have just 100 days or so until the election. We have 4.5 million Colorado voters to educate on the issue.

Let’s face it: cats are inedible, and recreational hunting of native cats occurs just for trophies and fur pelts. Trophy hunters and fur trappers of mountain lions and bobcats target unoffending animals and do nothing to protect human safety, livestock, or pets.

What makes it worse is that wealthy trophy hunters hire commercial guides with packs of dogs trained to attack and tree a lion or bobcat and shoot the animal off a tree limb. It’s a “guaranteed kill” with the trophy hunter only paying the $8,000 fee after the kill.

And what’s worse is, nearly half of the lions shot by trophy hunters are females. When mothers are killed, the kittens are doomed to starvation, dehydration, or exposure.

Last week, veterinarian and animal scientist Jim Keen on our team released a landmark report reviewing the literature on mountain lion science. He concluded, from his exhaustive review, that lion populations are self-regulating.

He cited convincing data from California that revealed unhunted lion populations there are officially stable. And the state averages fewer than 10 lions killed a year for damage control. Colorado killed 600 animals, with trophy hunters doing the vast majority of the killing of unoffending animals.

The scientific consensus is clear: Trophy hunting is entirely unnecessary for population control.

We Need You in This Fight to Protect Wolves and Native Cats

We are counting on you to give generously to fund our multi-pronged efforts to shield these animals from attacks.

But fighting the trophy hunting lobby is expensive, and it’s going to be a slugfest in Colorado. Taking the United States into federal court is also an immense task. And so is launching a new bipartisan legislative effort in Congress.

With these efforts and more, you have an opportunity to invest your dollars in tangible, high-impact campaigns. We need your help. Please give generously today.

For all cats, wolves, and all other animals,

Wayne Pacelle President Animal Wellness Action