By Robert Williams The Capital Times
Oct 26, 2016
Dear Editor: Sen. Ron Johnson, Rep. Sean Duffy and Gov. Scott Walker were campaigning in Wausau this week. Johnson made sure to highlight his current “work” trying to get the grey wolf removed from the protected species list as a way in which he’s working for Wisconsinites. “Just get that gray wolf delisted so that livestock’s safer and let’s face it — I do not want to see a tragedy where a person is killed by wolves,” Johnson said.
Don’t let this fear mongering win at the ballot box, with Republicans winning the Senate and strengthening their hold on the House and state legislatures. There’s no reason for the Republicans to stop, however — right-wing propaganda and Koch-backed conservative groups who favor Johnson and the like have done nothing for Wisconsin except incite fear and hatred of other Americans and of wolves. Scaring the voters, sadly, works.
Anti-wolf campaigns like these are paid for by conservative political organizations antagonistic toward the federal government and portray wolves as preying on children, livestock and decimating the deer herd. It seems to me that removing the grey wolf from the Endangered Species List is the wildlife version of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge takeover early this year. It’s a phony rebellion against an animal that isn’t a danger to people or really even a threat to livestock. And the state of Wisconsin and U.S Fish and Wildlife Service permits any wolf that presents a safety concern to be killed. This scapegoating of the wolves is just humans who have succumbed to their own rage against imagined enemies, when the biggest threat to Wisconsinites is economic degradation by corporate interests.
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Thanks for posting this Rachel! Mr. Williams is “right on” in his article. This entire wolf controversy has always been about politics and special interest groups. Man is so selfish that they will always continue to destroy the earth and everything on it for their own agendas.Jackie M.North Carolina
Protecting the Grey Wolf is Protecting Our Public Lands. Congress introduces H.R. 621 to sell 3.3 million acres of public lands and introduces S. 164 which strips ESA protections for Grey Wolves. Both to drill on public land. #OurWild #WorthFightingFor I just blogged on this:
https://nomadadvocate.wordpress.com/2017/01/31/protecting-the-grey-wolf-is-protecting-our-public-lands/