CPW must stem hostility toward wolves

In the wake of multiple wolf deaths in Colorado, including one just this week, wildlife advocates are calling on Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioners at their June 11 and 12 meeting to be moral leaders and stem the hostile climate created by anti-wolf activists in order to prevent more horrific killings of a federally protected and ecologically valuable species, and to foster a new order of nonlethal coexistence.

Since reintroduction began December 2023, multiple wolves have died – the vast majority with serious wounds and/or fatalities at the hands of humans.

On Monday, there were news reports that a wolf had died in northwest Colorado.

In addition, this past week, a young male wolf pup of the Copper Creek pack was killed in Pitkin County after officials say they were forced to relocate the pup away from Grand County, where a rancher reportedly operated an open carcass pit of livestock serving as an attractant to predators. 

In March, officials killed a Colorado wolf that crossed into Wyoming.

In September, in Grand County, a male gray wolf with a GPS collar that had a gunshot injury to its rear leg was found dead.

In January, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked for information about who shot a gray wolf that was captured in Grand County last August. There has been no follow up offered to the public.

CPW leadership must set the right tone to protect wildlife, because a hostile climate toward wildlife is a human problem and presents the major obstacle to non-lethal coexistence.

Examples of sound leadership must include:

• A swift rebuke of the anti-wildlife activist crowd that erupted in applause to a comment supporting running over wolves with snowmobiles at a public meeting in Grand County that was held by CPW prior to the most recent reintroduction of wolves in Colorado. This was recorded at a public meeting with local media present and dozens of wildlife agency staff in attendance. The support for cruelty and killing wolves by snowmobiles for fun was in reference to Cody Roberts, a hound hunter who ran over a young wolf in Wyoming, then paraded her in a bar before shooting her dead. 

• A stark condemnation of anti-wolf activists who obstructed and diverted an airplane carrying wolves to Colorado. As reported in the news, activists brandished AR15s, trespassed and threatened citizens and government workers, all while an airplane carrying wolves to Colorado was set to land in Eagle County. That plane was diverted to Denver International Airport because of activists, who were against wolves and who amassed on the ground, as detailed in an online anti-wolf group called Wolf Tracker. The plane diversion has been confirmed by administration at CPW and a source present at the time of the event.

– Julie Marshall, Colorado director for Animal Wellness Action