Thought this was one of the best, fact-based letters I have read on the subject. It appeared in an online blog as a response to comments supporting the wolf re-introduction. Well worth the read.
> Dear sportsmen,
> > I just read the original post regarding the negative impacts wolves
> > are having on our elk, and I read the almost unbelievable replies
> > from people who are supposedly sportsmen. The
> > wolf-worshippers/anti-hunters/eco-freaks have certainly done a fine
> > job of brainwashing. I live in Wyoming and have been heavily
> > involved in the wolf controversy from the beginning. We have seen
> > how many lies have been told regarding the wolves, and unfortunately
> > they are very good at telling the lies to get you to believe it is
> > just returning Yellowstone to "natural conditions".
> > Here are the facts:
> > 1. The US Fish and Wildlife Service introduced a non-native specie
> > to the Yellowstone region. The native wolf was the Rocky Mountain
> > Wolf, which hunted in pairs and weighed 80 pounds maximum.
> > The Canadians
> > hunt in packs, sometimes as large as 27 wolves, and weigh in excess
> > of 150 pounds. NOTHING in the region can stand up to them. So the
> > USFWS, controlled by the wolf-worshippers, broke the Endangered
> > Species Act by introducing a non-native specie.
> > 2. Wolves did not commonly inhabit Yellowstone.
> > Strong evidence shows
> > that wolves rarely entered Yellowstone in the 77 years prior to 1913
> > (National Park Service Documents, "The Wolves of Yellowstone" Weaver
> > 1978). Also, an official government document, Yellowstone Animal
> > Census, 1912, lists various animals and their numbers, but under
> > Gray Wolves the total is listed as NONE (Hornaday, Our Vanishing
> > Wildlife, pg 336).
> > 3. Wolves don't kill only to sustain themselves.
> > They often kill for
> > sport. In 2005 in one night a lone she-wolf killed
> > 29 sheep in
> > Pinedale. The USFWS came the next day, tracked it down by air from
> > its radio collar and found that it was 20 miles away, so they left
> > it alone. Two weeks later it returned to the same herd and killed 13
> > sheep. At the Camp Creek elk feedground a lone wolf killed five calf
> > elk, eating about 5 pounds of meat. Just having fun.
> > In spring of
> > 2006 about 40 sheep belonging to Jim Magagna were killed in a
> > pasture near Farson, Wyoming. Many many times we have found deer and
> > elk carcasses killed by wolves with only a little bit of meat eaten.
> > My friend, Royce Hoopes, resigned as elk feeder in the Gros Ventre
> > because every morning he would have to shoot 3 or 4 elk who were
> > maimed overnight by wolves. The most common maiming would be that
> > the noses and lips of the elk were eaten off, leaving the elk alive.
> > The wolves would run them out into the deep snow and when the elk
> > were so exhausted they couldn't go further, the wolves would eat on
> > them without killing them.
> > 4. The Dunoir Valley, northwest of Dubois, Wyoming was the home of
> > over 100 moose for the past 60 years. Now there are almost no moose
> > in the Dunoir, the Washakie Pack of wolves having eliminated them.
> > One of the very last moose calves was killed in the Dunoir within 20
> > feet of the house of Budd Betts. It had been living right next to
> > the house trying to avoid the wolves.
> > 5. The Betts family dog was killed on their front lawn in broad
> > daylight by two wolves right in front of Budd and his wife and kids.
> > Budd and a hired hand ran the wolves off by shooting over their
> > heads. You are damned right we are scared of the wolves!!!!
> > 6. The Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd numbered over 19,000 when they
> > introduced the wolves. Now they number about 7,000.
> > The only thing
> > that has changed is wolves.
> > 7. The Final Rule For Introduction of the wolf promised that when
> > there were 100 wolves for 3 years, they would delist the wolf and
> > turn management over to the state. That threshold was met in 2002.
> > There are now over 1,700 wolves. The Environmental Impact Statement
> > examined the effect of 100 wolves on the Yellowstone ecosytem, and
> > 300 wolves in the tri-state areas of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.
> > The present number of wolves exceeds the study by more than 5 times.
> > 8. If you wonder what the wolf is doing to our huntable wildlife out
> > west just do the math. According the feds, each wolf is responsible
> > for killing 1.9 elk per month or the equivalent.
> > That is 20 elk per
> > year killed per wolf. We have, officially, 1,700 wolves. That is
> > 34,000 elk killed by wolves each year. It doesn't take much of a
> > mathematician to understand that there is a crash of epic
> > proportions happening.
> > I could go on and on about this. In conclusion, it is painfully
> > apparent that the wolf-introducers are not wanting to "balance"
> > nature, but are mainly interested in killing off the surplus game so
> > there will be nothing left for us to hunt. If you have too many deer
> > in your neighborhood, please come get some of our wolves. Then you
> > can watch as your game and your livestock is destroyed, and you will
> > have to drive your children to the bus stop and keep them in the car
> > until the bus comes, because the wolves are sitting there in the
> > snow watching them wait for the bus. That is happening.
> > Yes, we are mad as hell about you eastern ignoramuses cramming the
> > wolf down our throats and destroying our way of life. Please study
> > up on this issue before you defend the indefensible position of reintroduction of wolves.