The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

The majestic wolf is considered either one of the most chilling killers or stunning creatures of the wild that nature has to offer this world.

Being a wolf there are two public images of you portrayed to others. You can create the feeling of fear because your mad-eyed drooling, biting of children, and killing of livestock. But you can bring in a sense of wonder from your strength, family-centric society, and as flagships of wild nature. The disappointing thing is that these extreme images of wolves are deeply rooted throughout history where they’ve lasted until modern-day. But instead of finding a peaceful way to coexist, the wolves are being shot, and killed. However surprisingly due to a miracle their numbers have not only kept the same but have been growing and spreading in the west.

In the season of 2013 alone, hunters and trappers killed a horrifying total of 598 wolves in the three states Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. What is even more disgustingly horrifying is that the statistics for the previous season of 2012 the number of wolves that were killed are about the same. This knowledge of learning that wolves are being killed off in such extraordinarily high numbers strikes many people because U.S. taxpayers pay tens of millions to actually restore the wolves to the Endangered Species Act and reintroduce them to the Northern Rocky Mountains. They’re not paying to have hunters start murdering them the moment they were taken off the Endangered Species list. However other citizens feel that it is their duty and see wolf hunting as a public service meaning a way to protect not only their own livestock numbers from decreasing but also their neighbors and as well to help raise the numbers of elk or deer. The impact that wolves are having in the government and politics is quickly out of proportion to their environmental importance. Therefore their swift decline in numbers will create a large effect on the regional agricultural economy even though they are trying to continue to polarize the West. This relationship is extremely toxic and it has only worsened with the advent of wolf hunting.

Only twenty short years after the wolves have been reintroduced into the Northern Rocky Mountain area, politicians are allowing them to be hunted therefore killed horrifyingly by the hundreds. In the two specific states of Idaho and Montana the wolves had lost their status on the endangered species list in 2008. Although due to several lawsuits and protests they were successfully put back under federal protection until the year of 2011 which is when they were finally delisted by Congress. From the Wyoming singularly aggressive wolf-management plan, they didn’t have the ability to regain the right to manage the wolves until the year of 2012. However since then, the Wyoming hunters have killed several high-profile collared wolves on the border of Yellowstone National Park. By doing this the hunters triggered a major viral outrage among wolf lovers around the world and in the year of 2014 a lawsuit filed by conservation groups