🐺 Wolf hunt debate turning into a dogfight

#TeamJacob

Wisconsin's Gray Wolf hunt has farmers and wildlife groups howling

Let me paint a picture some of you 'Scons know all too well:

You show up to your neighbor's house for dinner, and a few bites in the thought hits you - wait, what kind of meat is this?!

Well there guy, it really could be any of our wild game, with one exception: The Wisconsin Gray Wolf, who on Monday had its Fall season halted by a judge after several advocacy groups filed lawsuits.

Woah woah woah, wolves?

That's right, Wisconsin is 1 of 5 states that holds a wolf hunting season (given they are not on federal/state endangered species lists), but unsurprisingly, the whole thing has become pretty contentious between wildlife advocacy groups and landowners.

The hairy history

Before the migration of humans into this beaut' of a state, upwards of 4,000 wolves inhabited the land, living off the bountiful herds of wild game and hunting vampires (wait, no that's Twilight we're thinking of).

However, the arrival of man meant competition for this food source (we didn't have Culver's to subsist off yet), and wolves increasingly turned towards domestic livestock as landowners started cultivating the land.

Farmers having a cow

Obviously, Farmer Brown had an issue with wolves making burger out of his prized heifer. The destruction of property (think cattle, sheep, pets, etc.) by the wolf has cost the state some $3 million in retribution payments to farmers. They argue the need for a hunting season to regulate wolf pack numbers.

Advocacy groups bare their teeth

The debate over the Wisconsin Gray Wolf hunt boiled over this year as wildlife advocacy groups and native American tribes sued to halt this year's fall season. They claim the DNR failed to uphold the law as it was written and that a regular season is unconstitutional.

A judge ruled in favor, citing that the DNR failed to essentially update its management in terms of kill quotas and duration of season.

Conservationists also highlight many overshadowed benefits of a thriving wolf population in our state, such as:

• Wolves help cull weak and sickly deer, which in terms means less Chronic Wasting Disease

• Lyme Disease cases are seen to decrease with more wolves

• More wolves = more scared deer = less car collisions with deer, 24% less revealed by a 'Sconnies study

A win-win solution?

Managing the Wisconsin Gray Wolf is one of the state's more controversial issues (even bigger than the time Brett Favre went over to play for the Vikings).

Farmers and hunting groups claim that hunting is required to protect livestock and property, while conservationist assert that wolves should be left alone to keep the ecosystem in balance.

So until the DNR can figure out a way to manage wolf populations in a way that promotes their natural place in the ecosystem - as well as finding a solution for those farmers - maybe we'll just stick to deer jerky.