Medicine of the Wolf Page #4

is this basically,

it's just that, as a country

we don't know how to answer

this very simple question, which is,

what is an endangered species?

And there's definitely controversy

about how to interpret that phrase

and what it means,

but whatever it means,

occupying 15% of the historic range

could not possibly count as recovery.

And snaring,

I wasn't even aware of snaring.

I mean, I had heard of it.

I learned about that during this time,

and now I'm just so appalled

that 75% of the wolves

that were killed during

the trapping season

were killed by snaring.

The trap itself is created in such a way

that it will catch any animal

that steps into it.

And that mean... would mean

not only the target animal,

which in this instance

would be the wolf,

but any other animal

that steps into that trap.

A beautiful male coyote,

a three-to four-year-old male coyote

was caught in a wildlife services trap.

And it appeared to us that this

animal had been in this trap,

from the extent of

its injuries in the tissue,

for anywhere from a week minimum,

but possibly two weeks.

As we investigated

the situation, looked around,

we found other coyote tracks

within his area, right around

him and in the snow around him.

And what was interesting

is it appeared to us that

possibly his mate, or another coyote,

was actually helping him survive,

was actually protecting him

against other predators,

and probably bringing him food, too.

If the American public saw this

and understood the brutality

and the cruelty of this,

that this program would

be ended very quickly.

I often ask people who abuse animals

and do nasty things to animals,

"would you do it to your dog?"

And some people don't like to hear that

because it puts them

in a very uneasy space.

And, you know, thank goodness,

if I've talked to somebody

who's, you know, trapped a wolf,

shot a wolf, done something harm...

poisoned prairie dogs,

um, harmed coyotes,

and I say well,

"would you do it to you dog?"

They go,

"well no, of course I wouldn't."

And then I'll say, "well how come

you can do it to another animal

who is also sentient and conscious

and feels pain?"

And oftentimes, with a lot of people,

there's a pause.

And it's an important pause, I think,

because they haven't ever put their dog

in the place of those animals.

Following the de-listing

in the Yellowstone area,

the wolf was about to face a new threat

in the Great Lakes region.

Senators Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar

petitioned the interior secretary

for the de-listing of

the wolf in Minnesota,

and were calling for a

state-regulated wolf hunt.

Senator Dibble.

Thank you, Mr. President,

we're not quite done with wolves, sorry.

- Um, I have the a18 amendment.

- Senator dibble offers

the a18 amendment, the secretary

will report the amendment.

Senator dibble moves to

amend house file 2171 as amended

pursuant to rule 45 adopted by

the senate April 17th, 2012,

as follows, page 22 delete section 50,

this is the a18 amendment.

And it was very clear what the intent

of that committee hearing was.

It was to roll out a... a plan to hunt

wolves in the state of Minnesota.

This is even before the

official de-listing occurred.

The first hearing at the

legislature was January...

was a day before the d-listing,

was January 26th.

In the house and in the senate.

The... the rush was on.

The pressure was on.

There was going to be a wolf hunt.

The big agricultural groups,

the big hunting groups

had done their homework,

had effectively lobbied

all the chairs on the committees.

Already had a plan

in place through the DNR

to begin this hunt in 2012.

The bill was rushed through,

it eventually was incorporated

into the game and fish bill, there

was some debate on the floor,

but it was just too late in the process

for us to stop it.

The authority that has been

working on... on wolves

for many, many years,

no... no question about it,

there was no hesitation

on that particular call.

It was asked directly on that

particular conference call

if it is time to manage

wolves in Minnesota

and this man said, "absolutely."

And he said because of

the numbers, number one,

and because the numbers...

If they continue to grow

at the rate they are growing,

they're gonna be causing

problems amongst themselves.

Yes, so recently, the federal

government proposed to delist wolves

throughout the lower 48,

excepting for Mexican wolves.

And whenever the federal government

makes a proposal like that,

it has to go through

a scientific peer review.

And so I was selected

to be a peer reviewer,

along with a couple of others,

and we were selected on the

basis of our credentials,

on the basis of what

we knew about wolves.

It was later discovered, uh...

that myself and these

two colleagues of mine

were not favorably disposed

to this particular proposal

to delist wolves across the country.

And when that was found out,

uh, we were uninvited

to be panelists to review this document.

And that created some controversy for

folks, because of course it's not a...

a very sensible way

to go about a peer review,

to just take people off

because you might not like

the opinion that they would come to.

And, um... and, this

really is just a symptom

of a much bigger trouble uh,

that we have on the planet,

we think that, uh... uh, life is

just full of a bunch of opinions,

and one opinion is the same as another,

and that's not the case. Uh, the thing

that makes a scientific opinion

different from any other kind of opinion

is just how well it's defended.

And so it doesn't matter

what my opinion is,

what matters is how well-reasoned it is,

and how well-defended it is.

Members, it's... it's very easy

for those of you who live around here

and you can watch

wolves on television, and...

and, uh... but it's a lot

different for people

that actually live in wolf country,

where wolves live.

Where parents are afraid

to leave their kids alone

to wait for the school bus.

I know one of the editors

of one of my newspapers

and when she takes a walk at night,

she carries a handgun with her.

Because of wolves.

The decision was made.

And now to take it

away from these people

that are so impassioned about the wolf,

to kill the wolf.

There's... as much passion as

you see to protect the wolf,

there may be more passion,

may be more, to kill the wolf.

There may be.

And it's... it's a laser-seeking,

hot-point on a politician's skin.

And they are just,

it's... it's pathetic.

Members, if you'd really like

to see what the wolves do

in greater Minnesota,

take a look online of the

picture of the young man

that was taken out of his sleeping bag

while he was camping

in northern Minnesota.

And take a look at his skull,

where there's staples,

where the wolf took a big

chunk out of his head.

A wolf attack is incredibly rare.

Matter of fact, there's

only two recorded attacks

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