Wisconsin has a major deer over population problem.

Find a wolf's den or area where his or her pack tend to stay and have a high
powered rifle w/ a scope and you to can kill a wolf.


BTW I hunt too.

Then why hunt wolves?

When did you ever hear of a place overrun with just one species of animal that WASN'T Man? Ri-fucking-dickulous.

When I moved back to Wisconsin in 1989 the wolf population was between 20 and 30. It's now somewhere around 800.

The population is growing by about 100 individuals per year, and the DNR lists 55 (of 77) counties with confirmed or 'probable' sightings.

There are no cases of wolf attacks on humans but, a handful of wolves have been shot because of suspect behavior around people. There are now about 30 wolf deaths per year resulting from wolves being hit by vehicles.

The growing Wisconsin wolf population is leading to increased presence of wolves in agricultural areas, and a marked increase in incidents of wolf depredation on domestic animals. The state paid a record $203,943 in wolf damage claims in 2010, up from $91,328 in 2009 and $134,752 in 2008.

This isn't Alaska.

Many of these hunters have suffered predations including both pets and farm animals. Many are fearful of what will happen when wolves take over their neighborhood. No one in WI voted for the return of wolves. It just happened (thank you Minnesota, we're told). No education effort has been made to help people understand what having wolves in their neighborhood means - not that anyone who realizes they or their children face a risk of one day staring down a pack of wolves will believe it is anything but dangerous.

Many feel (rightly or wrongly) that the growing wolf population has been forced on them by people (in southern urban communities) who will never have to live with any of those consequences - benign or not.

Please tell me this is a joke.

If you were serious, with all due respect, the wolves didn't vote for the humans either.

The WDNR has claimed they have had no role in the reintroduction of wolves, that the wolves have come here from Minnesota, who reintroduced the wolf in their wild areas in the late 80's, IIRC.

I don't see how that's a joke.

And, until Walker and the GOP destroyed it, we had in this state something called the Conservation Congress, which met all across the state each spring to talk to citizens about our environmental and wildlife management policies. And, as with a constitutional congress, attendees were able to participate in decision making. It's actually how we got mourning dove hunting in this state.

So, no, the people didn't get to have a say in reintroduction of wolves. Because of that, there hasn't been any effort at education of the general public as the matter never came up before the conservation congress in any serious discussion.

In the grand scheme of things, it may seem stupid to you to allow the citizens of the state to have some influence on the policies of environmental regulation, conservation and wildlife management, it seems to me and an awful lot of people in this state to be a very important thing.

GOP legislators revoked our say. GOP legislators rammed through the wolf hunt legislatively. Walker and the GOP have put in place a Deer Czar who will work with the GOP DNR secretary to put in place regulations that will effectively privatize our wild deer herd.

Perhaps with the GOP in charge, you're starting to see that not having a say is a problem.

you do realize that the wolf was native to your area until they were brutally wiped out of existence by...say it with me...MAN. I'm sorry the people running your state are noodle heads but I really find the idea of having to ask people if its okay to redress a wrong against an intelligent beast who owe their demise to RANCHERS silly. They brought non-native animals into an ecosystem then killed off the native fauna because the wolves killed their product.

Wolves are shy, they don't walk down the middle of main street looking to kill people. People are insane...there is an infinitesimal chance that a wolf may kill a person ergo we kill the VERY FEW we have?? If that is the case, I propose we start killing people off...you never know when they're going to turn on other people.

My originally point stands...hunting for sport is stupid. If you're not hunting to feed, you're hunting for sport.

Edited to add: two minor points; here in suburban NYC we have a problem with rabid coyotes which in our area are actually coywolves as their a hybrid coyote/eastern wolf. Yes, they've killed pets and attacked children. Just like with my friends in the canyons of southern california, we learned NOT to leave our pets unattended. Once the local press made this point people got smart. Secondly if people are so worried about the wolf...let me remind you that they were nearly extinct very recently...then why isnt an effort being made to relocate them instead of killing them. Man's answer to everything...got a problem with something/someone??? Kill it!!!

welcome

Are there even 1,160 wolves in the entire lower 48?

By comparison the WI deer population has fluctuated around 1.5 million over the past decade and about 1 million deer permits of all kinds are sold.

The DNR always issues far more licenses/tags than they hope will be filled because only a certain percentage of hunters will have success. As you read in the article, if they get close to the target number of registered kills, they will shut down the season - which is something different than they do for other seasons.

or using traps to catch wolves. Fortunately neither of these was implemented. A trap for wolves would easily trap a dog.