PREDATOR DEFENSE Executive Director, Brooks Fahy, summing up the true "off the reservation" wolf management that is now at play in Montana(let alone Wyoming and Idaho)............Congressman Edmunds lamenting about the potential loophole in reporting wolf kills and concerned that "pro wolf" activists can game the system and fill quotas without killing wolves" ...........This due to the midevil sentiment that exists in the Rocky Mtn States regarding the potential for Wolves to transmit diseases to humans..............A clause in the Wolf hunting guidelines states that hunters do not have to bring in a wolf pelt, ear, tooth, paw, etc(so the hunter does not have to touch the animal they dispatched)................All that is required is to buy a wolf hunting tag and report in that you in fact killed a wolf, no evidence required...............Almost comical and as Brooks saids: "sick, sick, sick" some folks seem to have become attributing all of their economic and social trials and tribulations on Wolves who account for a smigen of livestock and Elk deaths accrued annually in the State(Brooks comments are bolded below)

Wolf hunt backers fear loophole for foes

By EVE BYRON Supporters of Montana's wolf hunt say they've discovered a way "pro-wolf activists" can game the system and fill quotas without killing wolves.

Rep. Champ Edmunds, R-Missoula, said a friend told him about the possible way to fill the quotas without killing a wolf after reading the new regulations, which allow a hunter to leave a tagged wolf where it's shot if they don't want to keep the hide or skull. The provision was inserted as part of legislation passed this year to protect hunters who fear wolves carry diseases, and want to shoot them but not touch them.

But Edmunds fears that people he calls "pro-wolf activists" will simply purchase the $19 wolf tag, report that they've killed one and fill the quotas
.
"They could fill the quota a week after the season starts, and no one will even kill a wolf," Edmunds said. "I called Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and their response was that the same goes for mountain lions and nobody does this. They said that if there were any indications they would investigate and if it's true, fine them. But once they get around to suspecting it and investigating it, the wolf season will be over and we won't get any wolves killed."

One of the reasons for having a wolf hunt season is to remove 220 wolves from the current population of about 550 in Montana. Models show that if the hunt, combined with the loss of wolves due to livestock depredation, accidents, emigration and natural causes, coupled with an increase due to births and immigration, would drop the wolf population to somewhere between 425 and 526 wolves. (Are they kidding? They're going to kill 220 wolves in the hunt. The Wildlife Service killers took out 141 wolves in 2010 and almost the same number in 2009, no reason to think that will change. That's a death toll of 361 wolves not counting poaching or general mortality, out of a 520 population?  My math says a death toll close to 400 leaving just 120 wolves They want us to believe this will all be made up with pups in the Spring??)

Without a wolf hunt this year, the population is predicted to increase to 632 to 647 wolves.
FWP Commission members set the quota at 220 as a way to balance concerns over impacts the wolves are having on livestock and elk with the need to maintain a healthy long-term population. Commissioner Shane Colton added that while their intent was to make people present their carcass for verification, the legislature's action changed that. (Almost 400,000 elk in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Wolves killed 75 cows in Idaho, ranchers lost over 80,000 cows to non-predation. Montana wolves were responsible for just 87 cattle losses out of over 2.5 million cows. We have to expose these lies and damn lies, otherwise they are driving this train.)

The wolf hunt regulations currently say that all hunters must validate and tag their wolf harvest, and report the kill within 12 hours to FWP. But they only need to present the hide and head to state officials if they wish to retain the possession.

"Our intent was to make people present their carcass, and most people are going to want to because most people will want to keep it," Colton said. "But I see the concern there." He added that hunters need to report where the wolf was killed, so if suspicions were raised it would be investigated. (These are sick, sick people)

Jim Kropp, FWP's chief of law enforcement, added that if officers have even "an inkling" that people are fraudulently reporting wolf kills they'll be investigated.

"We'll go back to the kill site and if the information submitted was false we will pursue it," Kropp said. "We've heard there's some concern over that."

Colton said even though the wolf archery season started Sept. 3 and one wolf has been reported killed so far, he thinks most of the wolves will be taken during the general rifle season, which begins Oct. 22. That gives the commission a little time to ponder the issue and decide whether further action is needed.

"I think we are at a place where the shenanigans have to stop and we let the season play out," Colton said. "The wardens are savvy and if they see people who never hold hunting licenses claiming to have killed a wolf, they'll look into it.

"But we don't think there will be a lot of archery harvest, so maybe there is an opportunity for us to address this, maybe by changing the regulation somehow so they have to present the hide or some kind of identification showing you actually killed the animal."

Brooks Fahy
Executive Director
PREDATOR DEFENSE
541-937-4261 Office
541-520-6003 Cell
brooks@predatordefense.org
http://www.predatordefense.org/