Minnesota will hold two wolf hunting seasons; 6,000 licenses offered

Star Tribune ^ | 5-23-12 | DOUG SMITH

[SJackson]

MINNEAPOLIS -- Details of Minnesota's first wolf hunting and trapping season released Monday didn't please everyone.

Mark Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, said limiting the season that opens Nov. 3 to 6,000 licenses and 400 wolves is too conservative.

"I think deer hunters will be disappointed," Johnson said.

Howard Goldman, senior Minnesota director of the Humane Society of the United States, says hunters shouldn't be pursuing wolves.

"We don't see any biological reason to hunt and trap wolves at all," Goldman said at a time when officials in Wisconsin, for instance, are looking at the feasibility of a wolf hunt.

[SJackson]

If you’d like to be on or off this Outdoors/Rural/wildlife/hunting/hiking/backpacking/National Parks/animals list please FR mail me. And ping me is you see articles of interest.

[driftdiver]

“Humane Society of the United States”

Heck why not just let the humane society kill the wolves, they have it down to a science.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Tell you the truth... I’ve hunted deer since ‘78 in and around the Bemidji area. Mostly in the Chippewa National Forest. I’ve never seen a wolf. I’ve seen two bears.

A couple of years ago, I was at my friend’s lake place in the Bemidji area. I was sleeping on the couch in the front room when the motion sensor lights came on outside and my pal’s pooch went berserk. I sat up on the couch and was eight feet away from a puma that was standing outside on the front deck.

Hey, let’s have a mountain lion season....

;-)

[GladesGuru]

As I tell my students, carry all the time, and have your gun of choice alongside the bed.

You could have had a nice cat skull on the mantlepiece.

[oldbrowser]

"That isn't going to hurt the population," said Mech. And it may reduce human-wolf conflicts by making the animals more wary of humans, he said

It may reduce human-wolf conflicts but it will certainly increase the number of rabbits, squirrels, and other assorted rodents. Farmers and residents will be screaming in about 4 or 5 seasons.

[petro45acp]

Thought the reason wolf populations were on the rise in the north was the “protection” policies in place.

Understand that the population rise is traceable by the numbers of reported pet disappearances.

Are we or are we not, the dominant beings on this planet?.

[Bellflower]

The farmers around here don't need a season. When coyotes bother their cows, etc. you can find them out late at night in parties with their rifles. I was out one night releasing a trapped animal and came across a group of them. I am glad that they didn't shoot me in the night, mistaking me for a coyote in the dark.

[eartrumpet]

What kind of trapped animal were you releasing? A problem animal you trapped and were turning into a problem for someone else, or an animal someone else trapped?