Wolves are on the verge of spreading like wildfire across the country. Between all the protection and unoccupied (by large canid competitors) habitat, and an ability to morph and adapt even greater than their more solitary coyote cousins they will spread like ink on a pain of glass.

Wolves WILL reduce deer, elk, moose, rabbits, coyotes, foxes, domestic dogs, horses, sheep, calves (and an occasional cow), and yes they will be a danger to unaccompanied children and older people under certain circumstances. They will learn to come into mall garbage sites for food scraps in the evening. They WILL follow deer into housing areas in the winter and be a hazard to dogs and schoolchildren. They (like the increasingly unmanaged and no-longer-harassed bears and cougars) WILL grow bolder around people and eventually attack adult joggers on trails or old folks walking their dog or kids playing in a park.

And all the while the newspapers and TV folks will swallow and regurgitate the pap served up by the animal rights cults that wolves; like sharks, cougars, and bears “don't do that.” That people are "in their habitat." That the savaged person "behaved" incorrectly. That their habitat should be "saved" and people and homes and roads removed. That they have important “functions” in the ecosystem. Like the turkeys that were once claimed to “need” virgin forests or the Canada geese that were once said to be able to breed only in far northern marshes, the wolves will prove just how ignorant we are about their capabilities and “needs.”

The latest sleeping pill about what is happening is that places outside current “critical habitats” can manage the arriving wolves without Federal control (at this time.) Ah yes, like including “local governments” in planning committees we are assuaged. We are calmed by the “fact” that although 5 or 6 western states are having a lot of trouble it won’t be like that for “us.” As Bugs Bunny used to whisper, “sucker!”

As wolves spread, there will be an outcry when Senator Claghorn’s 10 year-old golden retriever has her throat torn out inside her invisible fence as she looks for a place to urinate before coming in to bed. There will be an outcry when the elementary school kid in the snow or the high school athlete jogging through the woods, or the widow looking for her cat behind the shed, bump into and are harmed or worse by one or more wolves. Then Defenders and US Fish & Wildlife Service will say they are the state’s wolves, go to them. And people will.

The state will lie and propagandize about how this is the result of past hunting and environmental ignorance until they notice that people aren’t swallowing anymore and then the fun begins. They explain that they can’t use poisons anymore (EPA prohibits it.) They can’t use planes anymore, (Aerial Hunting Act prohibits it.) The Federal “trappers” don’t do this sort of thing off Federal land.

Traps can’t be used because of state laws or because dogs will get in them. Of course you can’t hunt or trap the wolves on National Parks or National Wildlife Refuges or on State Parks or State Refuges or Natural Areas. And the National Forests and Bureau of Land Management will have to do individual EIS’s and they expect a long court battle.

And many landowners will prohibit any wolf control on their land to “protect” the wolves and their environment. And certain cities and towns will prohibit any control within their boundaries. And the state doesn’t have any money for all this. And on and on and on… It will be like having a concealed weapons permit but you can’t leave it in the car or have it near a school or church or park or recreation building or government building or place that serves liquor (i.e. most restaurants) or … fill in the blank.

And no one will have an answer. And the state will shrug. The Defenders of Wildlife will smile. The Federal bureaucrats will refigure their retirement for the third time that day. The politicians will offer to “help” by spending more of your money to go through meaningless wolf control motions for years and years. Hunting and trapping will suffer but government land acquisition and government programs will prosper. And your grandkids will be taught how some callous people at one time resisted the restoration of a native ecosystem. When they ask you who they were, you will answer that you didn’t know any of them.

The time to stop this was the first session of Congress (15 years ago) that refused to reauthorize the Endangered Species Act. As long as that Act continues, the problems will proliferate and answers will become more and more remote. Pressure is needed from determined citizens. Politicians with honesty and strength of character must be elected to rewrite or annul laws. Judges determined to uphold Constitutional values must be appointed. Bureaucrat appointees must be placed in responsible positions and told to manage the bureaucracy and regulations.

The price is way too high so that someone can say they heard a wolf howl on the way home from the bus.