Wolves Essay Research Paper Wolves were wiped

Wolves Essay, Research Paper

Wolves were wiped out from at least 95% of their historic range in the United States over a period of more than 100 years. Our European ancestors brought with them an unreasonable fear and paranoia which manifested iteslf in ways that were harmful to the wolf, and indeed, to the very ecosystem of this continent. The need for domestic livestock, the fear of predators, the need to assert our dominance over animals, the word of God, prejudice, and downright maliciousness were all reasons that our ancestors felt were compelling enough to take the life of one of nature’s balancing forces. After all, we were above nature, weren’t we. This is not right. Mankind is not above nature. We do not have the right to set our own balance. We never had legitimate reasons to take the wolves from the land. There was never any need for the eradication of the wolf. Hunters and ranchers were wrong to do so, the government was wrong to do so. It is possible for domestic livestock to coexist with wolves, and in fact, wolves can benefit ranchers and do benefit hunters. Indeed, the wolf was a vital part of the ecosystem. There are ways that we can learn to exist with wolves. It is also the responsibilty of the ranchers, hunters, and anyone else including the government, to find a way to coexist with wolves, and with other wildlife as well.

Wolves used to number in the hundreds of thousands in the ‘lower 48.’ Lewis and Clark remarked about their numbers in their journals, indicating their regard for this animal. One species they saw was the now extinct Plains Wolf, or Buffalo Wolf. This was the largest species of wolf, easily weighing as much as 160 pounds or more. They had to be big, as they hunted buffalo. These majestic animals once numbered in the thousands. You and I will never see a Buffalo Wolf. Though the buffalo did survive the slaughter, the wolves did not. Other species of wolves followed the same fate, their numbers being decreased dramatically until almost none remained in the United States, save for Alaska and the upper reaches of Minnesota, where man’s dominion over nature has yet to reach levels found elsewhere.

Wolves were not the vicious killers that people made them out to be. Legend used to speak of wolves carrying children off into the night and devouring them. Stories told in Europe survived to be told anew in this country. Stories such as Little Red Riding Hood. Stories which portrayed the wolf as a killer, a man eater. Their haunting howls would send chills up the spines of those that heard them, for fear of the fate of those that wandered into the woods, fears brought on by legends, legends that were not true. One such legend was the imfamous wolf attacks in France. It was said that wolves would come into the cities at night and take children and smaller adults. It was later found that these were not in fact wolves, but rabid dogs, or perhaps hybrids, the dangerous mix of a wild wolf and an domestic dog. But legends like these cannot be easily overcome, especially when it is convenient to groups of people to believe them. Ranchers and hunters are the biggest benefactors of these legends. They look like heroes, hunting down and killing the “big bad” wolf. As hard as it is to believe, these legends and beliefs are still true today, and ranchers and hunters foster them. They truly believe that they are ridding the world of an evil creature. But don’t believe me, ask a rancher or hunter yourself.

Out of fear for their children, their pets, and their livestock, ranchers and hunters began killing wolves. The help of the government was sought, and programs of eradication were employed. The office of the president himself even decreed that wolves should be removed from Yellowstone National Park. Bounties were even paid on wolf pelts. The killings lasted for over a hundred years, stretching into recent history, when the last wolves were finally seen in Arizona and some parts of Montana. Various methods of killing were employed. Methods ranging from shooting, to trapping, arial hunting, torture, and by far the most succesful method, poisoning. Carcasses of livestock and native ungulates were laced with any kind of poison imaginable. Not only were wolves killed, but other non-target animals such as American Bald Eagles, condors, other carrion eaters, mountain lions, bears, even domestic pets and sometimes, people died as a result as well. Many of these poisonings were by goverment agents, such as those employed by Animal Damage Control, a now useless and over-budgeted arm of the Department of Agriculture. Deparment of Agriculture! Killing wildlife. Yes, for the sake of ‘protecting domestic livestock.’ Government trappers, at the expense of the taxpayers, were even employed to kill wolves. At one time the department of defense even tried to have wolves killed for their fur, to line the parkas of soldiers. So many pelts were needed that it was estimated that all of the wolves in North America would not have been enough.

The poisons, traps, rifles, and other methods, some too gruesome to describe, were very successful with wolves. Though wolves were not the only targets, they were the most successfully eradicated by the ranchers, hunters, and government agents. By 1970, less than 1% of the population of wolves had survived the slaughter. Where they used to range over every state, they now were limited to Alaska, Minnesota, Some stat