Western Watersheds Project has just learned today (Friday June 15) that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has ordered the killing of at least two adult grey wolves of the White Hawk pack in the Sawtooth Valley of central Idaho.
The killing of wolves has been ordered because a single calf (worth about $75.00) was killed by an unknown wolf on Wednesday night June 13 and eight sheep (worth about $400.) were killed about a week ago. The calf is thought to be owned by an investment banker hobby rancher from Boston, Massachusetts who enjoys his subsidized rancher lifestyle when visiting Idaho. The sheep belonged to Idaho rancher Bill Brailsford whose sheep caused trouble with wolves last year too.
Readers of this posting who might wish to object to this killing of a threatened species by government agents from a helicopter gunship should send an email to Robert Ruesink, the Director of the Boise office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (who authorized the killings) and Carter Niemeyer who is in charge of wolf recovery in Idaho for the same agency. WWP suggests mentioning that permanently retiring grazing permits through retirement payments could end the killing of wolves, a threatened species.
Their email addresses are: bob_ruesink@fws.gov; and Carter_Niemeyer@r1.fws.gov