Throwing Wolves to the Wolves

Oregon's House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources heard testimony on March 30 by the Oregon Cattlemen Association that 5 new bills should be passed concerning approximately 24 wolves that live in the state. Most of the bills are to basically to make it legal to kill all the wolves, any wolves anyone ever sees, at any time, with any weapon.

Details:

Bill #1 & #2: Ranchers would be compensated for livestock killed by wolves by either the state Board of Agriculture or the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Note: Organizations such as Defenders of Wildlife have been offering compensation for livestock proven to be killed by wolves since 1987. One detail of these bills is that ranchers want to be able to get the compensation without having to prove the dead animal in question was killed by a wolf. This is suspicious.

Bill #3: Wolves can be killed by ranchers or other people when they attack livestock or people.
Bill #4: Wolves can be killed by anyone for any reason.
Bill #5: Wolf population must be reduced to four breeding pairs.

Note: This is a most likely unsustainable number of breeding pairs. That makes this a bill for the extinction of wolves in Oregon.

Long story short (and fear and extermination of wolves is a long, long story), people who choose to live or work in the dwindling wild lands of this continent are frightened of the dark. They don't want to have to have adult supervision for their children at all times and they don't want to have to pay someone to watch over their cows and sheep all night. Despite the fact that many advancements have been made in inexpensive ways to deter wolves from preying on livestock, the easiest thing still looks like shooting at anything that moves. Education about co-existing with wolves and other "inconvenient" parts of natural ecology hasn't effectively come to these sunburned (how do you get sunburned in Oregon? somehow it happens) ranchers in white cowboy hats.

The world as we know it won't survive many more of these "traditional" solutions to humanity's desire to over-consume. We really can't keep clear-cutting, burning, exterminating, and sport-hunting our natural world away. Something has to stop us.