Posted on 11/16/2018 12:27:23 PM PST by jazusamo
The House passed a bill Friday that would remove federal protections for the gray wolf, allowing ranchers, hunters and others to kill the animals.
The Manage Our Wolves Act passed 196-180, mainly with Republican support. It would direct the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to end Endangered Species Act protections for the species and prohibit lawsuits challenging the removal.
The GOP and many western states have long argued that four decades of federal protections have been too successful in bringing the wolf back from the brink of extinction, and the species now poses a significant threat to livestock, pets and humans.
The Obama administration had determined that the gray wolf no longer needs protections, and removed them. But a federal court in 2014 overturned that decision, saying that the FWS didn’t show that the species was sufficiently recovered.
Under the GOP’s bill, landowners, hunters and others would be allowed to kill gray wolves, unless the states decide to implement their own protections.
“This underscores the extent to which the Fish and Wildlife Service has been hamstrung in implementing the objectives of the Endangered Species Act,” Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee’s oversight panel, said on the House floor Friday before the vote.
“Rather than spend its limited resources protecting vulnerable species, litigation activists have forced the agency to continuously defend every action,” he said. “In this case, despite scientific evidence collected by multiple administrations on both sides of the aisle showing that the gray wolf populations have recovered and thrived, the agency remains bogged down in costly, neverending litigation.”
Many Republicans speaking in favor of the bill framed the gray wolf as a violent predator and told stories from their districts of the animals killing livestock or pets or wreaking havoc in other ways.
“If you live in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., it’s not a problem. If you live in Madison, Wis., it’s not really a problem,” said Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Ill.), the bill’s lead sponsor. “And you can make the argument that the pretty little puppy of the wolf, it’s so pretty and beautiful, and we have to protect it.”
Duffy said removing protections would be “good for the environment. It’s good for the wolves, it’s good for the cattle, it’s actually really good for our deer population.”
Democrats accused the GOP of overstating the problems with wolves. They said the species, which once roamed nearly the entire contiguous United States before humans decimated the population, is critical to maintaining health ecosystems.
“They still inhabit just a fraction of their historic range, and continued protection under the Endangered Species Act is necessary,” said Rep. Don Beyer (Va.), the top Democrat on the Natural Resources oversight subpanel, and its likely chairman come January, since Democrats attained the House majority in last week’s elections.
“It’s important that we continue to protect the fewer than 6,000 that we have in the lower 48,” he said.
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said his district has a wolf breeding program, and it hasn’t caused the problems the Republicans warned about.
“We are not having catastrophic predation on cattle in southern Oregon, and we could accommodate more wolves,” he said.
“A lot of this is based on some sort of gut-level historic fear or hatred of predators that has been passed down from generation to generation. We can have a healthy wolf population and you can still do good husbandry for cattle.”
I know I am likely a minority on this site, but REAL CONSERVATION is something the Republican party should get back to claming. Why have we ceded conservation to environmental nutjobs? I think we should conserve our natural resources the best we can. It shouldn’t be something we instinctively reject. Conservatuon is a conservative principle. I’m not saying this is right or wrong but I’d like to see our side taking this issue away in a sane way.
Thanks for the ping, Jaz!
It should, but it won't.
This is just another way for the Left to stick it to "flyover country".
It is classic urban sticking it to rural people.
Here is an excellent paper that expodes the myth of the "harmless wolf".
It was written by Valerius Geist, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science, The University of Calgary.
He believed in the myth until hard facts showed him how it was created.
Why do you believe conservatives aren’t for conservation?
that’s GAY wolves. Or alternatively, GEY.
Stopped by the local pet store one day to pick up some goodies for my GR. Along comes this guy with what I would swear was at least a 75% gray wolf on a leash. WHOA! Long wolf legs, the whole bit. I complimented him on his gorgeous ‘dog’ while noting that said ‘dog’ was wearing a prong collar. After exchanging pleasantries, we both entered the store. I quickly noticed that other folks with their pets were giving this dude and wolf a wide berth. I asked the gal at the cash register about the wolfish ‘dog’ - she said, ‘Oh, they come in once a day as he’s continually socializing ‘Fluffy’ (pick a name). She said they had never had a problem with them. Have to admit, ‘Fluffy’ was very well behaved - but I haven’t been back there since.
Couldn’t agree more - Beyer is an idiot.
That, or introduce wolves to the Washington DC suburbs.
Help me out here folks. I know this is allowed for in the Constitution (to remove from judicial review), but is this the first time it has ever been used?
Can't wait to hear all the whining about separation of powers.
I don’t believe conservatives are not for conservation, but we don’t publicize it well at all. We’ve allowed crazies to have a monopoly on “caring for the environment” issue. Every single big non-hunting based organization that claims to be for conservation is far left. How do we change that so that the average American doesn’t see the GOP as anti-environment?
“How about a vote to make the tax cuts permanent, a-holes? That would be a lock, and this gray wolves BS will be rolled back in 2019.”:
Dittos! I guess they are trying to look like they are doing something.
Get out of the house sometime and visit wolf country.
Any number of ranchers can take you into the mountains to watch transplanted Canadian wolves run elk herds up and down hillsides until the elk drop from exhaustion.
Then the wolves eat what two or three they please, and leave the rest to rot.
Better yet, you might get to see the transplanted wolves run a royal bull elk into a snowfield, until the snow is too deep for him to continue, at which point they make sport of tearing his head to bits.
Sometimes you will get to see a pregnant cow elk or even a big bull with its hindquarters torn off, lying under a tree somewhere as they slowly bleed out.
Sanity isn’t part of the transplanted Canadian wolves playlist.
What the real playlist happens to be is the wish of enviros to run the farmers and, yes, the hunters off the land.
They’ve by and large chased all the elk off public ground now, and the vastly oversized herds stick to the big private ranches, the playing fields of the rich.
The deer population is down up north due to the wolves and when I’m outdoors up north either due to big cats or wolves, I carry a sidearm.
Wolves! Smoke em if you got em. Smoke a pack a day!
“Enviros and animal rights nuts will go ballistic if this is signed into law. “
As will any thinking human.
6,000 wolves scattered over all of North America is not a problem. ESPECIALLY when the national government compensates for any lost livestock.
It is, like the Rep said, an irrational fear.
Wolves aren’t a problem to city dwellers or areas they haven’t reinhabited, where they do exist they are if they’re protected and have no fear of man.
” ESPECIALLY when the national government compensates for any lost livestock.
It is, like the Rep said, an irrational fear.”
BS! They ONLY compensate for wolf kills that can be proven that only wolves ate any part of it. If the coyotes eat the scraps you are out of luck. By the time the Feds show up few can be proven.
They don’t compensate for all the hunting dogs they kill either.
Imported, exotic, not native, huge, Canadian timber wolves often are infected with Hydatid and other diseases.
At least, likely more than , 85 percent of all wolf kills that have occurred in Oregon have taken place on private property.
Mass killings for fun, too .. have killed humans, cows, horses, guard dogs, sheep, and llamas as well as calves.
http://www.wallowa.com/20180814/more-to-consider-where-wolves-are-concerned
Exactly, and the wolf supporting crowd doesn't like to address that.
Thanks, FRiend.
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