Most speakers in Ashland tell feds to take grey wolf off endangered species list
A public hearing in Ashland to take grey wolves off the endangered species list in the western Great Lakes region drew 76 people from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. Joe Cadotte reports.
Testimony came from throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan.
John Koski of Bessemer owns one of the largest cattle farms in Michigan. He says grey wolf populations have devoured more than one quarter of his cattle. He says wolves devoured around 40 of 200 of his cattle last year.
“We have two farms. We’ve had cattle on both farms for well over one hundred years. Since 1998 our farm has lost more cattle than any farm in the state of Michigan. It’s well more than $100,000 worth of losses now. Even some of these three huggers ask if it was wolves killing our cattle. It came back that it ate domestic cow.”
Retired appliance repairman Phillip Lupa of Bayfield County has had grey wolves stalk his property. He fears for his grandchildren and his German wirehaired pointer.
“I would go out at six in the morning I’d get up, I’m retired, I’d strap on a shoulder holster and shove in a pistol. They thought about post-traumatic stress syndrome, my kids were playing out in the yard and I was sitting with a shotgun with double aught buck. You look, there’s nothing there and they’re standing there.”
Although most people at the public hearing want wolves taken off of the endangered species list, Jaime Wilson of Ashland says the wolf population is as high as it was before Europeans arrived in northwestern Wisconsin.
“We are currently seeing overall wildlife populations around the world plummet due to humans and their ever expanding activities. We know that top predators are needed for a viable ecosystem. Delisting the wolf will be detrimental to the environment and to our own lives. We have to start reweaving the web of life back together. ”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide on its wolf delisting plan later this year. Wildlife groups have sued to block previous delisting efforts, and have raised some concerns about the current proposal.