According to an article entitled,"Wolf Emergency Measure Moves Forward", which you can read by clicking on the following link: http://www.fox12idaho.com/Global/story.asp?S=14390970, some members of the Idaho House of Representatives (ie.Politicians) actually have been quoted as saying that "Wolves are bloodthirsty monsters which kill for sport?"!! How can anyone,especially someone who has been elected to represent a large group of voters ascribe to such a belief as this?? Wolves are extremely intelligent animals which live in extremely complex social structures which rival those of our own species. Wolves kill to survive, and they usually kill the weak or diseased members of other species.This keeps other species strong within their gene pools. For a member or members of the Idaho House of Representatives to have actually been quoted as saying :"Wolves are bloodthirsty monsters which kill for sport" and for them to believe this notion, indicates to me that there is either a great deal of ignorance about wolves among the Human species or these politicians are using inflammatory comments to try and get attention for themselves and their rationalization of killing all the wolves in Montana! Neither of these reasons for engaging in the use of this phrase are going to make people in Idaho who understand the important role of wolves in the ecosystem, change their view of wolves one bit! These people who are saying that "Wolves are bloodthirsty killers" assert they are doing so because they fear that their children may be attacked and possibly killed by wolves when these children are playing or doing other things outside. However, what facts do they use to support this view of theirs? How many recorded instances of children or adults being killed in Idaho have occurred? I could only find research which suggests one person in Saskatchewan was killed by wolves in all the available resources online: See:http://www.hcn.org/issues/315/16084 .
And experts who examined the tragic death of this person in Saskatchewan assert that this death was
at least partially due to the behavior of humans in the region of these wolves!
I did some online research and found the following article: ,"Idahoans weigh in on ending wolf protections" which was published on the MSNBC website in 2007 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17500060/ns/us_news-environment/)
As stated in this article:
"Wolves were reintroduced to the northern Rocky Mountains after being hunted to near-extinction, and now number more than 1,200 in the region. The region where wolves would no longer have federal protections would include all of Idaho, Montana, eastern Washington and Oregon and a small sliver of northeastern Utah."
If wolves are causing problems in these states in the United States, I assert that it is because humans
and our behavior, which has caused wolves to chose to prey on cattle and other animals of humans which live in Idaho. This assertion of mine seems to be supported by scientific research:
Deer and Elk in Eastern Idaho
Dr. Dennis Murray, University of Idaho
These cattle ranchers as parents are no doubt truly concerned that their children or themselves might become prey for these wolves. However, as Cattle ranchers they have moved into the habitat of wolves in Idaho. Why should wolves be killed in order to allow these farmers to make their incomes (and protect their children from being killed by a wolf? ) No one told the farmers to move into these areas where wolves were already well established! And no one told these Cattle Ranchers that they should become Cattle ranchers. Entering a business always entails risks (and it is the risk of wolf predation that is one of the risks that the Cattlemen of Idaho and other regions have to face to run their business.
.
The wolves were in these habitats first!! It is the Cattle ranchers who have caused this problem with the wolves! If Cattle ranchers want to live in these areas then they should be required to have their cattle in buildings or areas where wolves cannot predate on their cattle! If Cattle ranchers can prove that such an undertaking would be financially difficult then the Government of the United States should provide funding for these cattlemen so that these cattle and other animals are protected from predation !! Maybe if the Government of the United States and the Governments of the various states in the United States were more interested in the people who live in the country and their way of life, and maybe if the Federal Government of the United States spent more money within the confines of the United States instead of spending it fighting wars this situation may not have happened at all! If these cattle ranchers are fearful for the fact that their children or themselves might be attacked and killed by a wolf during a normal day of activity, then certainly they can take precautions regarding this possibility rather than feeling that wolves are bloodthirsty, kill humans for sport and should therefore wiped out as a species in Idaho!!
"Under normal circumstances, wild wolves are generally timid around humans. Wolves usually try to avoid contact with people, to the point of even abandoning their kills when an approaching human is detected though there are several reported circumstances in which wolves have been recorded to act aggressively toward humans."
(source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_attacks_on_human
)
Source of image:http://howlingforjustice.wordpress.com/
