I am going to cut right to the chase – SB 36, Wolf Management, is a barbaric bill.

Senator Allen Christensen (R-North Ogden-District 19) is adding to Utah code that wolves are to be captured or killed if it is found in the wild. The bill uses some overly simplistic logic to justify itself:

The wolf is a predator and its presence in the state threatens the state’s wildlife and ungulate populations, therefore, it is the policy of the state that the wolf shall be destroyed or removed from the state.

Furthermore the bill basically allows bounty hunts for these wild animals and places an emphasis on the actual killing of wolves.

Now, I don’t have a farm and I am not a hunter.  But what I do know is that wolves used to roam the west freely until we came along and decided we didn’t like them.  It is true, wolves can be nasty critters, but that does not mean that we should put into place a policy that exterminates them.  They were here long before we ever showed up.

And, the whole “predator” part…well duh, of course they are, it is part of the ecosystem.  We need to read between the lines on this one.

People like killing animals like moose, deers, and the like, and they don’t like the fact that the wolves are getting to them first. So they complain, start killing some anyway, and then find out they are in trouble. So they complain to, in this case, Senator Christensen, and say that the wolves are causing them all sorts of trouble.

I would be far more understanding if the bill addressed the killing of wolves that are attacking livestock – that, after all, is a persons livelihood.  This bill, however, does not even try to address that, and just puts a blanket statement out there so that people will just have another thing to shoot at when they are drunk.

This is a bad bill; it flies in the face of nature and logic.

Click here to contact Senator Christensen

P.S. Thanks to Misty Fowler over at Saintless for pointing this bill out to me.