The wolf was believed to be a lone male expelled by a pack in Wisconsin. The hunter who shot him in northwestern Illinois, allegedly keeping his skull as a trophy, was the first person in the state ever prosecuted for shooting a wolf under federal endangered species laws.
The incident, resolved in 2013 when the hunter pleaded guilty and paid a $2,500 fine, comes amid evidence of a modest but perceptible uptick in the number of wolves roaming across the Wisconsin border into heavily populated and widely farmed Illinois.
Illinois' own once-thriving wolves were hunted to extinction by the 1860s. But since the first confirmed sighting in the state in 150 years, in 2002, wolf sightings have gone from rare to regular — with at least five in the last three years.
That isn't the sort of animal I'd want in my neighborhood. Those PETA types who say that wolves are no threat to people are nuts. When even little coyotes will attack people, you can bet an animal twice their size and which hunt in packs will absolutely take every advantage to kill a person if they can, and even more so for pets and livestock. I predict that the good folks in Illinois will practice the rule of the three S's: shoot, shovel and shut up, which is what this guy should have done.
He could have skinned the wolf and said that it came from road kill.
ReplyDeleteOr he could have said nothing. 2500 dollars later, i'd wager he has learned that lesson.
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