Dear Friend of Wolves,
Time is of the essence. If you haven't spoken out for emergency protections for wolves, please do so now! You'll find inspiration and talking points below in our sample letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, along with other key letters sent her way.
For example, today we were encouraged to see a
powerful letter sent by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Oreg.) urging emergency reinstatement of Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves. Rep. DeFazio has been a good friend of our work and has taken a strong stand for native predators for over 30 years. We were thankful to be able to provide input to his letter.
As we've said since before 2011, when wolves started to lose federal protections, they were never "recovered" by any true scientific metric and should never have been delisted. Idaho's horrifying legislation allowing the slaughter of 90 percent of their wolves goes into effect July 1, 2021, with Montana's planned 85 percent to follow shortly thereafter.
We urge you to join us in speaking out to stop these states from unconscionable slaughter and the undoing of decades of work toward wolf recovery.
ACT NOW! How to Take a Stand for Wolves
Please contact the two most pertinent leaders below to request emergency reinstatement of federal wolf protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Scroll down to find inspiration in our sample letter and other resources.
What Should You Say? Here's a Sample Letter
We encourage you to copy/paste/personalize the letter below and email it to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland via
[email protected]. Then adapt it as needed for the other recipients (contact details above). Keep in mind that unique messages are what get leaders' attention, so using your own words as much as possible will make the biggest impact.
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Dear Secretary Haaland,
I am writing to request that you quickly reinstate Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies via your emergency listing powers as authorized in the ESA.
Emergency action is warranted, due to the significant risk to the well-being of the species posed by states bent on drastically reducing their wolf populations. Idaho's recently passed bill will allow them to kill up to 90% of their wolves, effective July 1, 2021, and Montana's legislation has paved the way to kill around 85%. Their planned actions will undo decades of work toward wolf recovery in the Northern Rockies and beyond.
Key pieces of science and fact are missing from these states' legislation allowing wolf slaughters. They ignore all the details that really matter, including:
- Top scientists said the 2011 wolf delisting was flawed, as wolves were not recovered. They remain unrecovered to this day.
- Killing wolves negates the vital role they play in healthy ecosystems, Wolves keep elk and deer on the move, which prevents overgrazing and allows the land to recover. They also take out sick, old and inferior deer and elk, while hunters do not. And that is only the beginning of the services they provide.
- Elk and deer populations are not declining due to wolves. In fact, in Idaho and Montana they've been thriving.
- Wolves cause a statistically insignificant number of livestock deaths; most deaths are caused by weather, disease, and poor husbandry. in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, where the majority of wolves live, predation is far less than one percent.
- Wolves have exceptionally strong family bonds and depend on intact family units. Disruption of wolf packs can lead to increased predation on livestock.
- Wolves and other predators do not need to be "managed," as their populations are self-regulating for a myriad of evolutionary reasons.
- Wolves bring in millions in vital tourism dollars. Protecting wolves could be much more valuable to states in the long run.
- The vast majority of Americans are not OK with bringing wolves back from near extinction only to kill them all over again.
These states' actions are inhumane and unscientific. Please direct the USFWS to establish science-based criteria founded in their own "3R" criteria for delisting: Resiliency, Redundancy and Representation. These are the essential attributes for a self-sustaining species that can be considered recovered and delisted.
Thank you very much for your attention to this vital issue.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
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Additional Sources of Inspiration
Thank you so very much for standing up for wolves at this critical juncture. There is still hope, if enough of us demand that protections be reinstated quickly.
For all that is wild and free,
Brooks Fahy
Executive Director
Predator Defense
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"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it,
but that it is too low and we reach it."
- Michelangelo
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