pstrongPetition “Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks; Governor Bullock of Montana /strong/p
pWill you take 30 seconds to a href=”http://www.change.org/petitions/montana-fish-wildlife-and-parks-governor-bullock-of-montana-stop-the-unjustified-killing-and-hunting-of-montana-s-wolves-use-science”sign it right now/a?/p
pHere’s why it’s important:/p
pFor over twenty years I have researched and taught about wolves. Having had the longest running behavioral study of these animals in Montana’s history, outside of Yellowstone National Park, my interactions with wolf management agencies has been extensive. I have found that managers have an appalling lack of knowledge about these animals, along with a disregard for science./p
pAt the end of 2011, I published a a href=”http://www.wolfandwildlifestudies.com/downloads/natureandscience.pdf”paper in a peer-reviewed scientific journal /athat analyzed the data found in FWP’s annual reports. Their information was filled with fabricated numbers used in making management decisions, such as determining the hunting quota. I have come to realize that I cannot expect FWP to act responsibly because they do not know what that means. I am responsible for wolf management. So are you. If you want wolves you will have to fight for them. Use what science knows about these animals and understand the data. This is crucial because managers at FWP create a facade with their numbers. It will take some effort to unravel this illusion to reveal the truth./p
pI have spent years emailing and visiting FWP officials to understand how and why they used flawed information to decide how many wolves should die in public hunts. I also asked about the procedures used to collect their data, because FWP has claimed that wolf hunts are based in science. Although my questions have remained mostly unanswered, I did find out that no protocols are used during data collection. This is important because the conclusions derived from the data cannot be any better than the quality of data collected. In other words, wolf management is not based in science as FWP has claimed./p
pEach year, the state of Montana has allowed the public to kill more and more wolves, and without knowing how many wolves actually live in the state. Recently, the law has been changed so that hunters can now kill up to three wolves each and use electronic calls. As added incentive, out of state hunting fees have also been reduced. Wolves are already trapped using leg holds has a part of hunting. As if this wasn’t enough, two more bills are being considered that will allow the use of dead wolves to bait these traps./p
pFollowing is a list of the officials involved in wolf management. They are arranged from the highest political level to the lowest, top to bottom. I urge anyone interested in this subject to email these people and demand the truth about wolf management and clarification as to what is really going on./p
pSteve Bullock, Governor of Montana, a href=”mailto:governor@mt.gov”governor@mt.gov/a.br /
Jeff Hagener, FWP Director, a href=”mailto:jhagener@mt.gov”jhagener@mt.gov/a.br /
Mike Volesky, FWP Deputy Director, a href=”mailto:MVolesky@mt.gov”MVolesky@mt.gov/a.br /
Jim Satterfield, Regional Supervisor, a href=”mailto:jsatterfield@mt.gov”jsatterfield@mt.gov/a.br /
Jim Williams, FWP Wildlife Program Manager, a href=”mailto:jiwilliams@mt.gov”jiwilliams@mt.gov/a.br /
Kent Laudon, Wolf Management Specialist, a href=”mailto:klaudon@mt.gov”klaudon@mt.gov/a./p
pa href=”http://www.wolfandwildlifestudies.com”Please visit my web site /a for more specific and additional information about wolves in Montana and my interactions with the government to end the killing of these animals. My scientific publications and the magazine articles I have written about this issue are available as free PDF downloads. You will see that FWP has no scientific justification for killing our wolves. Until the public as a whole tells wolf managers to stop, this process will continue indefinitely./p
pThank you for your concern,/p
pYou can sign my petition by a href=”http://www.change.org/petitions/montana-fish-wildlife-and-parks-governor-bullock-of-montana-stop-the-unjustified-killing-and-hunting-of-montana-s-wolves-use-science”clicking here/a./p
pThanks! /p
pJay Mallonee/p
pWolf and Wildlife Studiesbr /a href=”http://www.wolfandwildlifestudies.com”www.wolfandwildlifestudies.com/a/p
pThis petition began on 3/29/13./p