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Politics & Government

'Stop the Wolf Hunt,' Says Advocate From Minnetonka

Dr. Maureen Hackett founded Howling For Wolves as a way to combat the wolf hunting season scheduled to begin in November.

Through protests, television and radio ads, and billboards, Dr. Maureen Hackett is fighting to stop Minnesota’s wolf hunt.

“Most of the wolves that die will die from trapping,” said Dr. Hackett. “They will be bated and trapped with a leg hold trap. They will suffer shock, dehydration, and extreme pain. It is a horrible death.”

Dr. Hackett is a forensic psychiatrist and she has been a resident of Minnetonka for 17 years. In March of this year she founded the nonprofit organization, Howling For Wolves. She said that she decided to start the group after watching the legislature push through the political process leading to the wolf hunt with little public comment.

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Minnesota’s wolf hunting season will take place over the months of November through January, as established by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The federal government removed the Minnesota gray wolf population from the endangered species list in January 2012. The season could end earlier if the target harvest of 400 wolves is reached before the end of January.

Part of the reason for the hunt is to protect livestock and pets from wolves, according to the Minnesota DNR. Dr. Hackett disagrees.

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“This hunt is really for sport,” she said.

Wolves are not a problem, she asserted, and hunting them would not end the relatively few conflicts between wolves and livestock that do occur. Instead, she suggests that the state help livestock owners implement methods such as fencing that would prevent wolves from killing livestock.

Dr. Hackett is concerned that hunting could actually cause more problems, particularly if a hunter kills the most experienced hunters in a pack. In such cases, she said, a pack would be left with young, inexperienced wolves that may then turn to livestock to survive.

Another part of the problem with the wolf hunt, Dr. Hackett argued, is no one yet knows how many wolves will be killed simply as a result of not being under federal protection. She added that there is also a lack of comprehensive data on the actual number of wolves in Minnesota. Dr. Hackett explained this concern:

“The wolves were stable from 1998 until last estimated in 2008. We do not have a baseline population survey on the eve of this inaugural wolf hunting and trapping season. We will not know if certain problems are occurring until it may be too late without this essential baseline data."

Dr. Hackett noted that the Wolf Management Plan specified that once wolves were delisted, five years should pass before the opening of a wolf hunt. The Minnesota legislature struck out that provision of the plan last summer.

Early in August, Howling For Wolves submitted a petition to the Minnesota DNR requesting officials to end the wolf hunt. The group has also attended the Minnesota State Fair and Renaissance Festival to encourage people to ask Governor Dayton to stop the hunt. On Aug. 24, Howling For Wolves, along with other people and organizations protested at the Capitol.

“It’s an issue of justice for the wolf,” Dr. Hackett said.

For more information about the wolf hunt, the removal of the five-year waiting period, and the Wolf Management Plan, visit the Minnesota DNR. Information is provided under several tabs.

For more information about the benefits of wolves, visit the Howling For Wolves Resource page.

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