By Jonathan Oosting
LANSING, MI — State Sen. Tom Casperson apologized Thursday for including a fictional account of a real-life incident in a 2011 resolution urging the U.S. Congress to remove Michigan gray wolves from the federal endangered species list.
The Escanaba Republican, a leading advocate for and sponsor of a law that will lead to Michigan’s first-ever wolf hunt later this month, owned up to the error in a floor speech.
“I was mistaken, I am accountable, and I am sorry,” Casperson told his colleagues. “Words matter. Accuracy matters. Especially here, with a topic that is so emotional and is so important to so many, especially those whose way of life is being changed in my district.
“A decision here of whether or not we use sound science to manage wolves, as with all decisions this body makes, should not be based on emotions, agendas or innuendo, but rather on facts.”
MLive Media Group, as part of a multi-story package on the upcoming wolf hunt, reported on how the true story of wolf sighting outside a day care center in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula became the foundation for a mythincluded in the resolution.
Lori Holm of Ironwood told MLive that she spotted a wolf on her lawn in 2010. While she watched kids inside, Holm noticed a “big wolf” roughly five feet from her white Sheltie in the backyard. Her screams caused both wolf and dog to turn away without further incident.
The incident, as described in resolutions adopted by both the House and Senate a year later, turned into a horrifying and fictional paragraph.
“Wolves appeared multiple times in the backyard of a daycare center shortly after the children were allowed outside to play,” read the fourth paragraph. “Federal agents disposed of three wolves in that backyard because of the potential danger to children.”
The fiction was based on Holm’s experience. But there were no children in the backyard that day. There was a single wolf, not three. Three wolves eventually were shot — seven months later, on three separate days, on a plot roughly three-quarters of a mile from Holms’ property.
While Casperson apologized multiple times for the error in his resolution, he said the “door was already open” for the federal government to remove Michigan wolves from the endangered species list, pointing out the population had risen dramatically. Three wolves were counted in 1989, but there are now a minimum of 658, all in the UP.
“Contrary to those that oppose the hunt, wolves can and will attack humans,” Casperson said. “And the whole truth is that unless we actively manage wolves with sound science, with all the tools available to us including a limited hunt, we will eventually have an accident like that which occurred in Solway, Minnesota, in August this year when a wolf attacked a teen while he was camping.”
The widely-reported and verified incident that Casperson referenced, the first ever in Minnesota, made national news earlier this year. Subsequent testing revealed that the wolf, trapped and killed by wildlife officials, had severe deformities and brain damage that experts believe caused the “unprecedented” attack.
Casperson wrapped up his speech by promoting the spirit of his 2011 resolution — but not the entire substance.
“Years ago, when I worked for my family’s trucking company, we didn’t scrap a log truck because it had a flat tire. We fixed the tire and kept trucking. For the same reason, I will not disown the whole resolution about wolves because of an error in the text. I will correct the error and continue to promote safety in our communities.”
Watch Casperson’s full floor speech in the embedded player above and read the original MLive article here: The Michigan myth: How lawmakers turned this true wolf story into fiction.