HELENA – Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials said there is no physical evidence proving that avowed anti-wolf activist Toby Bridges actually ran down and killed two wolves on Interstate 90, as Bridges claimed last month on Facebook.
According to an FWP news release issued late Friday afternoon, state wildlife officials ended their investigation Friday into the incident in which Bridges, founder of the wolf hate group “Lobo Watch,” bragged online about killing one wolf and mortally injuring another with a minivan on Interstate 90 just east of the Idaho border.
Bridges on Sept. 16 posted pictures on the Lobo Watch Facebook page describing in graphic detail how he accelerated his vehicle in an apparent attempt to intentionally run down wolves he claimed were chasing elk across the highway. In a letter to newspapers after the story broke, Bridges claimed the incident was an accident.
Bridges did not respond to repeated email inquiries and neither his telephone number nor address are listed in local printed or online directories.
According to Montana FWP Region 2 Warden Capt. Joe Jaquith, two FWP investigators were unable to find physical evidence corroborating Bridges’ claim of striking the two wolves.
Jaquith said Bridges maintained in an interview with FWP investigators that he hit the wolves. Jaquith said Bridges claimed it was an accident.
Jaquith said the physical evidence from the mini van, an examination of the photos, and an examination of a wolf carcass near the scene of the alleged incident indicated Bridges’ account was not true.
According to the agency, FWP wardens found a wolf carcass off the shoulder of the road in the area described in Bridges’ Facebook post that was consistent in size and color with the dead wolf in the online photo Bridges’ posted to Facebook. However, the carcass investigators found was “far more decomposed than typical for a wolf killed at the time Bridges reported to have struck the wolf.”
A search of the nearby hillsides for evidence of the second wolf pup, which Bridges claimed ran off into the woods “dragging a broken leg,” also turned up no evidence, FWP officials said.
“They could not locate any signs of a carcass or injured wolf, including evidence of blood, tracks, hair, odors or scavengers,” an agency news release stated.
Jaquith declined to say whether FWP investigators believed Bridges made up the story.
Jaquith said there was “not a shred” of evidence to corroborate Bridges’ story.
“What I can tell you is there were no marks, not even so much as a smudge, that indicated what he’s telling us is accurate,” Jaquith said.
A Montana Highway Patrol crash scene investigator analyzed Bridges’ photograph from the scene and concluded that based on the photograph, the vehicle had not been involved in an accident, the agency said in a news release.
According to FWP, wardens searched for potential witnesses and worked with the Montana Department of Transportation as part of the investigation, but no witnesses came forward.
“In typical cases involving harassment or killing of wildlife with a vehicle, there has always been either a witness to the event, and/or fresh physical evidence that could be directly tied to the violation,” Jaquith said in a statement. “In this particular case the only witness appears to be Mr. Bridges, the vehicle shows no evidence of having been in an accident, and the lack of any other physical evidence supporting the claim precludes the filing of criminal charges.”
Wildlife advocacy groups have called on FWP to issue a statement condemning anti-wolf extremists who post graphic images of dead and mutilated wolves and call for the illegal killing and maiming of wolves on social media sites such as Facebook.
“Montana FWP is constantly claiming that wolves are no different than any other big game species like elk. If this case involved an elk or a deer, I believe they would do an aggressive investigation, and even if they found no evidence of a crime, you know damn well they would come up with a public statement condemning this and they would put these lunatics on notice,” said Brooks Fahy, executive director for the Eugene, Ore.-based wildlife advocacy group Predator Defense.
Jaquith said the agency takes claims of abuse of wildlife seriously.
“In Montana, harassing or intentionally killing wildlife with a motor vehicle is illegal, and we take reports of such incidents very seriously,” Jaquith said.