Today, my father Dr. Michael W. Fox is traveling to Brainerd, Minnesota, to join hundreds of other wolf advocates to testify on behalf of Project Coyote before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in opposition to the Trump Administration’s proposal to strip all remaining federal protections for wolves across the lower 48 states (except for Mexican wolves in the Southwest). As a veterinarian, canid ethologist, bioethicist and author of more than 40 books – including The Soul of the Wolf – my father will speak to the many values of wolves. Read his testimony here.
Project Coyote Science Advisory Board Member Dr. Adrian Treves is part of a five-member peer review panel appointed by the USFWS that analyzed the proposal to delist the gray wolf. He and several other peer reviewers found the proposal “chock full of scientific errors,” stating “it looks like they decided to delist and then they compiled all the evidence that they thought supported that decision.” Read more here and here.
Across the nation, today is Stop Extinction Day of Action against wolf delisting – and we need your voice! If you haven’t already, please weigh in on this critical issue for our nation’s imperiled gray wolves. THE PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD ENDS JULY 15th!
Please submit comments TODAY in opposition to the proposed rule to delist wolves.
Click here to submit your comments using an online form. If your comments fit into the comment box, this method is preferred. For longer comments, please attach them in a Microsoft Word document.
Talking Points:
Your comments can simply state: “I am in opposition to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s proposed rule to remove Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the lower 48 states. I urge you to reconsider this proposed rule and to instead develop a national wolf recovery plan for wolves that reflects their intrinsic value and the myriad ecological, aesthetic, and economic benefits the species provides to our communities and ecosystems.”
For maximum impact, however, we encourage you to personalize your comments. Here are some talking points you may consider incorporating:
- Continuing Endangered Species Act protections for wolves is necessary for the species to fully recover. Federal protections saved gray wolves from extinction following decades of persecution – and the species is still recovering, currently occupying only a fraction of their historic range.
- The proposed rule would transfer authority over wolves to state wildlife management agencies, which historically have shown little interest in preserving wolves. These state agencies have catered to special interest groups who seek to kill wolves for trophies or entertainment, or on the misguided belief that killing wolves protects livestock or increases deer and elk populations.
- Wolves are vital to healthy ecosystems. Benefits wolves provide include increasing biodiversity by keeping large herbivores such as deer from overgrazing habitats and maintaining the health of prey animals such as deer by culling the sick members from the heard, including animals suffering from Chronic Wasting Disease.
- The best available, peer-reviewed science demonstrates that killing wolves will not protect livestock or increase populations of game species like deer or elk. Wildlife management decisions should be based on ethics and sound science, not fear and misunderstandings.
- The vast majority of Americans are wildlife watchers who prefer to view wolves in their natural habitat – preserved and treated with respect. Allowing wolves to return to their historic range and thrive will provide far more benefits to our economy than allowing a tiny minority of the population to extirpate these iconic animals from our landscape.
Learn more about wolves here.
Thank you for acting TODAY to protect wolves from extinction!
For Wild Nature,
Camilla H. Fox
Founder & Executive Director