St. Paul, MN – Minnesota-based wolf advocacy group Howling For Wolves calls on the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to discontinue the use of baiting, trapping, snaring in the upcoming late season of the wolf hunt.
The late season of the Minnesota wolf hunt is scheduled to begin this Saturday, Nove. 29 and will close Jan. 31, 2015 (or earlier if the harvest target is reached). Firearm or bow and arrow are methods allowed during both the early and late wolf hunt seasons. Traps and snares are allowed only in the late season.
“Baiting, trapping, and snaring of wolves is unpopular and reckless. We call on the Minnesota DNR to end these cruel methods to hunt wolves, which also kill other animals like domestic dogs. Random killing of wolves through a hunt makes wolf packs unstable, creating problems that are unpredictable for communities, farmers, and wolf packs,” said Howling For Wolves Founder and President Dr. Maureen Hackett.
• Baiting involves using electronic wolf pup distress calls and meat piles to lure wolves.
• Trapping is using pressure-activated traps with metal jaws that snap shut tightly around a wolf’s lower leg and restricts the wolf until the trapper returns to dispatch the animal. Steel foothold traps and wire snares are indiscriminate devices that are commonly found with other non-targeted wildlife including moose, bald eagles, and domestic pets such as dogs.
Snaring is using a loop of metal wire that acts like a noose to choke an animal. Wolves’ thick neck muscles often prevent their suffocation; instead they suffer painful brain bleeds. Wire snares are inexpensive and can be used in unlimited quantities during wolf season, and many are never removed.
The use of traps and snares is unpopular in Minnesota. A recent Lake Research Partners survey found a majority of voters oppose the use of traps, snares, and bait to hunt and trap wolves in Minnesota. Sixty-six percent (66%) of voters oppose allowing the use of traps and snares to hunt Minnesota’s gray wolves.
In 2014, there is a wolf hunting season harvest target set by the Minnesota DNR of 250. So far, 124 wolves have been harvested in the early season. This past summer record-high numbers of wolves were also killed for predation suspicions, demonstrating that packs are most likely younger and less able to hunt. In the 2013 wolf hunt, there was a harvest target of 220 and a total of 237 wolves were reportedly killed by hunters. In the 2012 wolf hunt, there was a target harvest of 400 and a total of 413 wolves were reportedly killed by hunters.
Howling For Wolves (HFW) is a wolf advocacy organization that aims to educate the public and policy-makers about wolves to foster understanding and tolerance, and to ensure their long-term survival in Minnesota.
HFW seeks innovative non-lethal solutions for conflict prevention and coexistence where wolves are perceived to be a threat. HFW opposes the random killing of non-problem wolves for sport and the cruel methods utilized. Efforts focus on Minnesota’s gray wolves, which is the largest and only original wolf population remaining in the lower 48 states. http://www.HowlingForWolves.org.