Man uses pictures of dead dogs in testimony against wolves
Associated Press
ASHLAND, Wis. – Rob Stafsholt held up two pictures of dogs he lost to timber wolves while bear hunting to dramatize his support for removing the timber wolf from federal protection lists.
“My problem is not that this happened. It’s that we can’t do anything about it until the wolves are delisted,” Stafsholt said Wednesday in testimony at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hearing.
The meeting in Ashland was the third this week on a federal proposal to remove the timber wolf from the endangered and threatened species lists in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan.
That change would allow some hunting and trapping of wolves to control the population.
State wildlife officials said late winter estimates earlier this year set Wisconsin’s wolf population at about 390 animals – about 50 more than recommended.
The wolf is a native species that was wiped out in Wisconsin by the late 1950s after decades of bounty hunting. Since the animal was granted protection as an endangered species in the mid-1970s, wolves migrated into the state from Minnesota and their numbers have been growing ever since.
Nearly everyone who testified Wednesday supported removing wolves from the protection lists.
Stafsholt, who has homes in New Richmond and Clam Lake, wanted to be even more dramatic in his testimony than he was with his pictures.
He brought a mutilated carcass of his dog inside a suitcase to show the effects of wolf depredation, but was not allowed to display the remains inside the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center, where the hearing was held.