WOLVES: Wolves continue to spread over the Upper Midwest and in the West. Midwestern dogs in yards, on walks, and engaged in hunting for their masters are killed and maimed at increasing rates. Western elk, moose, bighorn sheep and deer herds decrease and then plunge in the wake of expanding wolf populations and wolf range expansions. Hunting permits and success are likewise plunging which in turn causes revenue to State fish and wildlife agencies to plunge. State governments (with the exception of Wyoming) emulate European nations in the 1930's when Hitler was on the move and again in the 1940's when Stalin stayed in Eastern Europe, in other words they capitulate to power.

Dogs are being killed all over the wolf areas but the press and pet owners ignore the problem. Wolf censuses are conducted by "volunteers" who are advocates of stopping hunting, ranching, logging, closing down public lands, moving people out of rural areas, etc. and that purposely shape wolf figures to please the Federal bureaucrats and State employee sympathizers. Ranchers are selling out as public land allotments are closed down and wolf depredations erase slim profit margins. A Saskatchewan miner walking home from work was recently attacked by a non-rabid wolf but the matter received little to no attention in the US press. The US press always covers predator attacks that kill and maim people as examples of people either being in the "wrong place" (i.e. the predators "habitat") or behaving improperly. Like overweight McDonalds customers, wolves or mountain lions are never to blame.

Meanwhile the US press and the communications directors of government agencies and radical environmental "Centers" are grinding out wolf propaganda like communist pamphleteers in 1917 Russia. Wolves are "bringing back streamside vegetation" by killing big game animals. Wolves are "restoring the balance of nature" (whatever the heck that means). Everyone is "accepting wolves" (except a couple of high school-dropouts in the back country). The Federal government is "allowing" certain ranchers in certain States (those that recognize the Federal power to do whatever they want with wildlife) to kill certain wolves when they are killing livestock and the rancher can prove it. "Experts" and bureaucrats blame the loss of wildlife on weather and mumble about how more land set asides and purchase by government are "necessary". Predictions of Armageddon from the reelection of the President or any attempt to touch the Endangered Species Act are as common as poppies along an Italian roadside. States beginning to receive wolves are practicing laying on their backs with their paws in the air (those of you that have seen dogs fight know what I mean) to the Federal bureaucrats. State reports on the matter and State rationales about why wolves won't be harmful are shameful but reflective of the transition of State fish and wildlife agencies from State employees to Federal underlings beholden to Federal dollars for their very jobs.

CALIFORNIA BIGHORN SHEEP. Bighorn sheep exist all over the western mountains. Although they have been very responsive to management programs and they generate millions of dollars in revenue and benefits from hunting, they are becoming a tool to kill hunting and further disable the State fish and wildlife agencies from serving the residents of their State. Bighorn sheep (like other big game) are feeling the sting of wolves as the wolves spread in the Northern Rockies. Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming see it now and (the honest ones) admit that it will only get worse. Remember this silence about disappearing bighorn sheep as we look at California bighorn sheep.