{"id":138,"date":"2025-06-27T11:01:40","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T11:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/?p=138"},"modified":"2025-07-03T10:13:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T10:13:12","slug":"boeberts-bill-to-delist-gray-wolves-not-surprising-given-her-little-hats-comment-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/27\/boeberts-bill-to-delist-gray-wolves-not-surprising-given-her-little-hats-comment-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"Boebert\u2019s bill to delist gray wolves not surprising given her \u201clittle hats\u201d comment (Opinion)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recent media coverage of U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert\u2019s bill calling to delist the gray wolf<\/a> from federal protection misses the most salient point: Boebert loathes wolves.<\/p>\n

Three years ago, Boebert rivaled Disney\u2019s 101 Dalmatians villain Cruella De Vil by appearing in a horrid video calling for the shooting of wolf pups and turning them into \u201clittle hats.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Hostility is not a sound platform for serious-minded, science-based wildlife policy. Nor for a healthy Colorado that adheres to humane ethics.<\/p>\n

Gray wolves are not recovered and continue to need Endangered Species Act protection. Without it, gray wolves will be subject only to state laws. But existing state laws have failed egregiously. In the Northern Rocky Mountain states, where wolves have been delisted, state legislation allows unlimited hunting, trapping and killing of gray wolves, sending wolf populations into declines reminiscent of the historic kill levels that resulted in near-extermination.<\/p>\n

Boebert\u2019s bill — the Pet and Livestock Protection Act — does nothing to measurably or responsibly protect pets or livestock.<\/p>\n

According to a federal study by U.S. Department of Agriculture, 97.6% of all deaths in adult cattle nationwide were not due to predators, but caused by respiratory problems, weather-related illness and other threats. In fact, domestic dogs often attack, injure, and sometimes kill livestock, especially sheep and calves.<\/p>\n

In Colorado, ranchers and wolf advocates are working together to prevent conflict. Wolf advocates from Rocky Mountain Wolf Project raised $75,000 to buy conflict reduction equipment for ranchers to use. It works when used correctly, as reported by Idaho rancher Glenn Elzinga, who has not lost any cattle or had to kill any wolves in the past decade.<\/p>\n

These voices and stories need to be elevated.<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t be fooled. Boebert\u2019s anti-wolf bill is designed for the destruction of a native species intrinsic to a healthy Colorado and the West. The bill is symbolic of the mindset of past centuries, when wolves were killed out of ignorance and unfounded fear. Today, her call to kill wolves is supported by U.S. Reps. Jeff Crank, Gabe Evans and Jeff Hurd.<\/p>\n

Delisting wolves nationwide will affect Colorado. Just look at the cascading effects of wolves of Yellowstone. It\u2019s a marvel to witness how the wolf as top predator holds the balance of nature, bringing back beavers and biodiversity.<\/p>\n

Hunters can appreciate the recovery of gray wolves has coincided with an increase in elk numbers in all three Northern Rocky Mountain states, according to Colorado State University research<\/a>. Wolves are removing elk, deer, and moose infected with chronic wasting disease — present in 37 states and 3 provinces.<\/p>\n

Gray wolves are one solution to the climate crisis, allowing trees and shrubs to flourish which sequester planet-warming carbon dioxide. Trees and shrubs enable water to be stored in soil, instead of rapidly running off and floods. Woody plants also shade streams and protect them from bank erosion which provides habitat for fish and water for human use.<\/p>\n

Wolves are killed across the Northern Rockies using steel-jawed traps, neck snares, packs of dogs and even snowmobiles.<\/p>\n

Conservationists are right now working to restore Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming through a federal district court that could rule in a matter of weeks.<\/p>\n

Wolves in these three states do not have federal protection. In 2009, U.S. Fish and Wildlife promised to restore protections for wolves in these Northern Rockies if state lawmakers and wildlife managers acted recklessly toward wolves. The agency has failed to hold up to that promise.<\/p>\n

We see state lawmakers in these three states allowing the year-round, unlimited trapping of wolves, and killing with the use of night-vision scopes. People who dislike wolves have turned motorized vehicles into weapons. One famous case involved Cody Roberts, who ran over a young female wolf with a snowmobile, taped her mouth shut, then paraded her in a bar before shooting her.<\/p>\n