Earth First touts wolf hunt sabotage
by Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online!
August 12, 2013
Earth First! Media has released a manual which provides detailed information for disrupting wolf hunting in those states that allow it. Titled The Earth First! Wolf Hunting Sabotage Manual, the text, complete with step-by-step graphics, explains how to find and destroy wolf traps, handle live trapped wolves in order to release them, and various methods, including the use of air-compressed horns and smoke-bombs, for stopping wolf hunts.
The authors of the manual describe themselves as, "hunters and proud of it," adding, "But we aren’t proud of what passes for hunting these days and especially for what passes as 'sportsman' hunting. Somehow, the National Rifle Association, yuppie trophy hunters, cattle barons, and the Obama Administration are in cahoots in an effort that promises to wipe wolves clean off the planet. And in that case, we choose to be saboteurs for the wild."
The publication of the text, which was sent to Earth First! Media by unknown persons calling themselves "the Redneck Wolf Lovin’ Brigade," is being published electronically at Earth First! News and is being offered for others to print and distribute.
Panagioti Tsolkas, a correspondent with Earth First! Media, says the manual is being published in light of regional delistings of wolves in the Great Lakes region and the Northern Rockies since 2011 where subsequent wolf hunts have accounted for over 1,700 wolves hunted or trapped.
"According to several wildlife agencies reports, there are fewer than 6,000 wolves left in the lower 48 states where wolves once number in the hundreds of thousands," said Tsolkas.
In June of this year, the Obama administration announced that it plans to push for nearly all wolves, excepting those in the U.S. Southwest, be stripped of Endangered Species Act protections, despite compelling evidence from numerous scientists that wolves have not recovered as a species.
"We're coming into a new era of wolf genocide," said Tsolkas. "It will be important for individuals and groups with a passion to protect wolves to take this manual into consideration. It'll surely save lives, but it's also a very dangerous undertaking. Wolf hunters have guns and obviously little morals when it comes to what they shoot."
Over its 33-year history, Earth First! activists have used hunt sabotage to disrupt hunts across the country.
"The wolf hunt sabotage manual could very well spark a new version of Whale Wars. This one will be called Wolf Wars."
Earth First! is an international radical environmental movement which began in 1979. The movement also publishes a quarterly magazine and online newswire.
Editor's note:
Wyoming statutes provide that it is a crime to prevent or hinder the lawful taking of wildlife:
23-3-405. Interference with lawful taking of wildlife prohibited; penalties; damages; injunction.
(a) No person shall with the intent to prevent or hinder the lawful taking of any wildlife:
(i) Interfere with the lawful taking of or the process of lawfully taking any wildlife;
(ii) Engage in any activity intended to threaten or otherwise affect the behavior of any wildlife.
(b) A violation of subsection (a) of this section constitutes a low misdemeanor as punishable as provided in W.S. 23-6-202(a)(v).
(c) Any person failing to obey an order of any peace officer to immediately desist from conduct in violation of subsection (a) of this section is guilty of a high misdemeanor punishable as provided in W.S. 23-6-202(a)(ii).
(d) Any organization or association which counsels or solicits its members or others to violate subsection (a) of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00). Each subsequent violation of this subsection shall be punishable by a fine of not more than fifty thousand dollars ($50,000.00).
(e) In addition to penalties imposed under this section, any person who has suffered injury by reason of the conduct of any person violating this section is entitled to recover damages in a civil action. Actual damages recoverable may include, but are not limited to expenditures for licenses, travel, outfitters and guides and special equipment and supplies to the extent the expenditures are rendered futile by the person's conduct in violation of this section. If the trier of fact finds that the unlawful conduct was malicious, it may award punitive damage to the injured party.
(f) Upon petition to the district court by any affected party and upon a showing that conduct in violation of this section is threatened or has occurred and under similar circumstances would likely reoccur, the court may enjoin conduct which would be in violation of this section.
(g) This section shall:
(i) Not apply to any land lessee, permittee or any employee thereof engaged in the performance of work-related activities;
(ii) Not apply to any landowner or his agent engaged in any activity on his own private property.
(h) As used in subsection (a) of this section, "process of lawfully taking" means travel, camping and other acts preparatory to taking wildlife if occurring on lands or water upon which the affected person may legally take the wildlife.
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