Wolves and Backward America.

I happen to think that wolves are some of the most handsome creatures that Mother Nature ever created after the cat family. Earlier on, Americans did a excellent job of making them extinct. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released 66 radio-collared wolves into central Idaho and Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and 1996 inspite of huge protests. Now, many of the wolves roam across Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. But ranchers and other vested interests in these states are pushing hard to making them extinct again. They have made a policy of poisoning wolves and shooting them at sight a matter of public policy inspite of federal law forbidding it. Money quote from 'The Los Angeles Times' story on the same: "In Wyoming, for example, Gov. Dave Freudenthial last April decreed that the Endangered Species Act is no longer in force and that the state "now considers the wolf as a federal dog," unworthy of protection." A fine example! It helps their case that wolves are a much maligned species and all urban legends against them are believed. If this is the great American libertarian and frontier spirit, so be it. May all these people live in ignorance forever. Some times I wonder how the ignorant and the aware co-exist in the US. I guess they just don't come into each others' sphere of influence. If this kind of thinking makes me a liberal elite, so be it. I don't really give a damn. (Wolf picture courtesy: National Park Service; Bumper sticker picture courtesy: Julie Cart of 'The Los Angeles Times'). My reaction to the nice bumper sticker which says it all is 'UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH'!