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img src=”http://www.hcn.org/blogs/range/images/greywolf.jpg/image_preview” alt=”wolf” width=”200″ height=”250″ /div class=”caption”Image courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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pstronga href=”http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=FWS-R6-ES-2011-0039-7450″Submit your comments/a to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ON OR BEFORE May 16/strong/p
pUrge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to KEEP Wyoming wolves under the federal protection of the Endangered Species Act. Please see sample comments below./p
pba href=”http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=FWS-R6-ES-2011-0039-7450″Act Now/a/b/p
pstrongSample Comments:/strong/p
pRE: FWS-R6-ES-2011-0039-7450/p
pThe members of Friends of Animals urge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to KEEP Wyoming wolves under the federal protection of the Endangered Species Act. /p
pWyoming recently completed four documents that clarify Wyoming’s approach to wolf management should the federal government delist the wolves of Wyoming, including revised State statutes, revised management regulations, revised hunting-season regulations, and an Addendum to the Wyoming Gray Wolf Management Plan. We reject the notion that the states of Wyoming and Idaho have offered a management plan appropriate to maintain recovery goals for the wolves who live in and between these states. /p
pUnder Wyoming’s plan and its clarifications, wolves are still subject to being killed on sight. The plan negates the importance of the wolves’ unique social structures and migration patterns. Genetic connectivity is far from assured between the wolves of central Idaho and Wyoming by way of the flex zone south of Jackson; moreover, four-and-a-half months annually of treating wolves in the flex zone as trophy game animals is reprehensible not only by our standards, but by global concepts of decency./p
pThe rationale for the states’ heavy-handed management plans is the goal of reducing wolf impacts on farm and prey animals. The statistically low incidence of predation on cattle is not an ecologically sound reason to target any and all wolves. Wolves do kill prey animals including deer and elk; although this might impact hunting revenues, it is the role of the Endangered Species Act to protect not businesses but endangered communities of living beings. Nor is it the role of the federal government to placate special-interest groups. We oppose de-listing of the Wyoming wolves in the strongest terms./p
pVery truly yours,/p
pPriscilla Feral, on behalf of Friends of Animals/p