Worst Case for Wolves--And How You May Be Playing a Part

From the NRDC Switchboard today:

The piece that struck me the most was one in which the US Fish and Wildlife Service accuses NRDC of lying about the possible consequences of delisting wolves in the region.  To be fair, the Service's wolf recovery coordinator, Ed Bangs, didn't actually use the word "lying" to describe our claims - I believe his words were "flat out spinning a bunch of horse pucky," but you get the point.

You see, there are currently somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,600 wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains.  The US Fish and Wildlife Service will tell you that upon delisting the states have committed to maintaining around a thousand of those wolves (a number, by the way, that we believe is inadequate to ensure longterm survival).  We, on the other hand, would tell you that rather than being protected by the state plans those same thousand wolves are actually in danger of being exterminated.  Now read on.

Yes, read on. But while we're expressing our outrage at the citizens itching to pull the triggers and the politicians who are allowing it, let's not forget, friends--why is everyone so eager to shoot and kill wolves? For the benefit of ranchers--and by extension, the benefit of those who eat and wear animals and what comes from them. The killing of wildlife, the further endangerment of endangered species, the destruction and pollution of habitat, the eating and wearing of animals (from the flesh of a cow to the wool of a sheep): it is all connected.