KARE 11 NEWS, Sat. April 21. 2012; Howling for wolves and American Indians
This past Saturday April 21, 2012, KARE 11 News ran a story about Howling for Wolves and our shared opposition to the wolf hunt with American Indicans and specifically the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe. Spokesperson and Elder Robert Shimeck of the Red Lake Band described the spirirtual connection between the American Indian and the wolf. Their creation story begins with man and wolf naming all living plants and animals. When the wolf and man separate, the American Indians believe that their fate and that of the wolf are intertwined and what happens to one happens to the other. It is very importatnt that they do everything to protect the wolf, as it is their fate too.
Robert Shimeck described understanding that when wolves cause a problem with livestock that they are then taken care of; often by being killed. And this will not be stopped with a hunt. In fact, a hunt may make livestock depredation worse by killing the alpha males and females and leaving younger lesser experienced wolves on their own to be less able to hunt and then more likely to go for livestock.
The DNR Commissioner was interviewed and stated that there are two hundred wolves killed every year for livestock depredation. He then stated that the number of wolves the hunt (trap) would kill is not much more than the number of wolves already killed.
What the DNR Commissioner failed to acknowledege was that the hunt would involve a separate and additional four hundred wolves on top of the two hundred wolves already killed for depredation every year. If Robert Shimeck and others who have the same concern about the hunting and trapping of "random" non-problem wolves making livestock depredation worse, than many more than the combined 200 plus 400 wolves will die because increasing livestock problems nearly always results in wolf deaths.
April 23, 2012