UNTIL THE STATE OF WYOMING HALTS WOLF HUNTING, WE CALL FOR A BAN ON WYOMING TOURISM

Wyoming, you are the home of Yellowstone National Park.

In 2012 there were 3,447,729 visitors to Yellowstone National park. *1For January to August of 2013 there were 2,553,999 visitors to Yellowstone National Park. *1 Yellowstone Wolves bring estimated seven to ten million dollars in annual tourism revenue.*2

According to the Sierra Club, the reason this percentage of tourists visited YNP was for the opportunity to view Gray Wolves in their wild, and supposedly protected environment at Yellowstone National Park. Wolves play an increasingly important role in the Northern Rocky Mountain region's economy.

According to a recent study, the roughly 151,000 people who visit Yellowstone National Park each year to see wolves bring in $35 million annually to Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, which is multiplied several times within the local economies. And nearly four percent of Yellowstone National Park's 2.8 million annual visitors say they would not have visited the nation's oldest national park if wolves weren't there.

Yet, we learned on October 21, 2013 of Yellowstone National Park Gray Wolves that fell prey to Wyoming wolf hunters. Wolf-watchers say they're concerned that hunters participating in Wyoming's second annual wolf hunt may have killed five members of the Lamar Canyon Pack, a well-known wolf pack whose territory includes part of Yellowstone National Park.

It is on public record that the state of Wyoming has no specific wolf hunting season for 80 per cent of the state, that Wyoming employs a "shoot on sight policy" for wolves because wolves in Wyoming are classified as predators and are permitted to be slaughtered at will, year round by a hunter in Wyoming. This can occur in the state of Wyoming without proof that the wolf has presented a threat to livestock by ranching interests.

Fortunately, Wyoming cut its hunting quota in half this year to make sure at least 100 wolves are maintained outside of Yellowstone National Park – a low bar indeed, but far better than the “open season” declared across over 80%percent of the state.*3

Wyoming, you are playing God, or Judge and Jury to an entire species of animals that you do not own. The Gray Wolves are not your personal property to dispose of as you see fit, they belong to the American public taxpayer.

Can you not see that by eradicating the Gray Wolves with your year-round wolf hunting policy, that you are not only taking out the Apex predator, which will in turn destroy the environment where you live, but that you are destroying the tourism attraction that appears to pay a fair amount of salaries in Wyoming.
Wyoming, please stop wolf hunting!



*1 http://www.yellowstone.co/stats.htm

*2 http://www.yellowstonepark.com/2011/06/yellowstone-wolves-bring-estimated-7-10-million-in-annual-tourism-revenue/

*3 From Canis Lupus 101: http://canislupus101.blogspot.com/

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