Hey everyone, as someone on the side of being saddened when this wolf was killed I can chime in a bit here and share my own perspective.
I should preface my thoughts by saying I support hunting, hunters rights , and gun rights. And I think first off its important to not create this huge dividing line between people that care about the lives of animals other than our own. We are not all tree hugging hippies who hate hunting and violence and guns, just as many hunters do not fit the stereotypical image some on the far left will subscribe to. I guess my point is half the problem though is that each side likes to view the other side in extreme, where many do not fall into those extremes...at either side. What that does though is prevent any real dialogue or movement and simply leads to lots of finger pointing and everyone sititing in their own echo chambers shaking their heads at the "other side"
Onto Wolves. I suppose my perspective is one shared by my those friends of mine who hunt as well in that they are not cuddly friends. But research has shown wolves are “deeply emotional individuals who care about what happens to themselves, family members and friends" and further a “wolf knows who he is, and sees his packmates as individuals. He has a concept of how his actions are perceived by others. He is capable of empathy, compassion, apology and encouragement.”
Native Americans, for one respected these animals, their family dynamic and hunting prowess. Some tribes viewed them as brothers and sisters and believed hunting them was a great taboo. "The Ojibwe tribes held powerful beliefs when it came to the wolf. They describe them as members of the family, brothers or sisters, and their bonds were that close. It was believed that whatever happened to the wolves would happen to the members of the tribe. Traditional beliefs hold the wolf in high esteem, considering them sacred, able to guide them between this world and the spirit world. So when hunting is brought up, it is as though one has mentioned killing an actual person in their tribe, a cherished family member. They believe in the structure of the pack and how it works. In that context, if something happens to a pack member, the others mourn, and the pack dynamic has to shift to accommodate that loss. This is both a great sadness and a full family upset, so much so that sometimes it has a hard time coming back and working."
These animals only exist in the last wild places on this earth. We should be looking to find a way to let them live their lives as we live ours. Elk herds, after wolves were eradicated were certainly larger, but they were unnaturally larger.
As all of you know, look anywhere in nature and you see systems of balance. Nature is BUILT on balance. ( of course the false mutant Canadian wolf myth that has wolves that kill only for fun and malice and would eradicate all animals and next children refutes this, but science of course refutes this. )
Remove whole pieces from those systems and you are left with unbalanced systems, and unintended consequences. The East Coast where I am originally from, does not have a predator population and I would argue the region is worse because of it. The explosion of the ungulate population has been correlated with an explosion in the tick population. I have had Lyme disease and it is not fun. Well, many places in the East you cannot walk through the woods without exceptional protection from ticks. It is a problem. Every heard of a ghost moose? The moose in Maine have so many ticks on them they lose their fur and slowly die before collapsing from all the blood being sucked out of them. Unchecked prey populations are not the answer.
All of this is in addition to the fact that these animals (should) have a right to live their lives and support their families.
And really, as the most powerful species on this planet by far, we should be protecting them. They have no voice to protect themselves. They hurt, they feel pain, they feel loss, they place family above all else. At one time we saw them as brothers.
There is a thought experiment I like to use as an analogy here. Imagine for a moment one day a race from another solar system arrives on our planet. They are smarter, faster, stronger, and have better weapons than us. They take up residence on the earth. Instead of sharing its resources they kill us. Often mercilessly and cruelly. They poison, trap, run us down with their machines. They make us suffer. We see our family members killed before our eyes. Many of them hate us deeply and take joy in our suffering. What would we think of that species? We would call them monsters.
In the end, I only wish we would see the wolf (and all intelligent animals) as brothers and sisters that we should use our great power to protect. Wolf and bear and man hunting side by side. And where there are conflicts we settle them in a way that considers their lives as valuable and not worthless.
It is a viewpoint the best hunters share, wherein each creature is respected and loved and the wildness is what we all seek to preserve because as we know there is less and less of it out there.
I know these creatures hurt and feel loss and pain and THAT is why it saddens me to see one of these animals die, just as I feel when I know a friend has lost a family member, or when any human dies and others mourn their loss. Or when an elk dies too. The hunters that give thanks when they see the life leave the animal they have killed are the ones often also fall into this category. It is not wolves only, it is the whole of it all.
There is a story of the alpha pair of the first wolf pack in Yellowstone, the Druid peak pack. The alpha male was the patriarch and ruled over a family of almost 40 wolves. He was known for his kind but strong nature. He was a premier hunter, one of the best and helped provide for his pack at all times. He was also kind, he rarely killed another wolf that infringed on the packs territory, choosing instead to chase them off (often over and over again). His partner was killed when she wandered out of the park. Shot by a hunter, and you can imagine (and this is the part that sickens me) the high fives and smiles that this action led to. The male, his partner of many years now dead, spent weeks looking for her, howling in sadness. Until he returned to the spot where they raised their first litters of pups together and laid down there. That was the last spot he was seen. This alpha male who had strongly ruled over one of the largest wolf packs in the lower 48 ever, just gave up. He was found dead, alone, a couple weeks later.
You may say that is coincidence, that this is the time he chose to give up and choose to die. But those of us who have ever lost a love know the feeling of profound loss. I choose to believe what the science tell us that these animals feel joy, and sadness, and anger and loss and grief. I do not presume as a human I am the only species to feel emotions of any kind.
I mourn the loss of these animals, because I believe they have a soul and a spirit as all animals do.
Because I know what is to feel grief and loss. And because I feel sadness for the joy some find in inflicting suffering on another.
In the contentious predator debate, these unquantifiable qualities, the value of the life of a wolf, its soul and spirit, and beyond that how its family members feel when he/she is murdered are almost entirely absent. These animals are not numbers to be managed; they are highly intelligent individuals capable of feeling grief and joy, excitement and sadness, playfulness and determination, compassion and loneliness, and they place family above all else.
Instead of thinking of wolves as numbers or datasets, trophies to be won or targets to destroy — consider them individuals, members of families, the thinking feeling creatures of this earth that they are. Respect their spirit. Leave a place for them in your heart. Start from there and we begin to become the protectors of this planet that in an ideal world we should all hope to become.
Thanks everyone.
