Regarding the recent Tribune article, “Lawmaker asks if Utah can return Colorado wolves in the form of a rug.”
I was in virtual attendance at the legislative meeting on June 18 where an agreement was discussed that allows Utah to capture and return endangered gray wolves that wander into Utah from Colorado. I heard Rep. Steven Lund ask committee members, halfway jokingly, “Can we do that in the form of a rug,” whereupon, Leann Hunting, animal industry director for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, responded saying “I like the way you think.”
These uneducated remarks exhibit contempt for the law, for wildlife, for at least half the residents of Utah, who have a different opinion on the matter, and for science and truth. Here are a few relevant facts:
Public land belongs to all Americans, and livestock grazing on it is a privilege, not a right.
Data from Idaho, Montana and Wyoming consistently show that in those states only a tiny fraction of cows and sheep are killed by wolves. For example, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service records for verified losses in 2014 indicate that 250 livestock animals out of approximately 7,000,000 were killed by wolves. This equals to .000357 or about 1 in 28,000.
All verified losses of livestock to wolves are compensated by the states, including Utah, at market rate.
Livestock grazing does tremendous ecological damage to the arid lands and the waterways of the West, yet the cost to ranchers for grazing one cow-calf pair or five sheep on public land is a measly $1.35 per month. This doesn’t even cover the cost of administering the federal grazing program.
There is a situation right now in parts of the greater Yellowstone ecoregion where chronic wasting disease (CWD), a form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy lethal to deer, elk, and moose, has suddenly exploded, killing animals in droves. Wildlife managers cannot control it and it threatens to wreak havoc on the entire greater Yellowstone ecosystem.
CWD is rapidly spreading in Utah too. Wolves, bears and cougars selectively prey on weakened animals and will do the job for free if they are wisely allowed to exist in ecologically effective numbers.
Kirk Robinson, Salt Lake City
