In March, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service collected public comments at the Alpine community center on the proposed release of Mexican gray wolves for 2015.

Public testimony demonstrated little support from the local communities for the release of another naïve (born and raised in captivity) wolf. Fish and Wildlife said the wolf release was needed for more genetic diversity in the wolves in Arizona.

On April 7, a woman walking her dog in Eagar found herself stalked and threatened by a wolf. On April 22, a male wolf was released in spite of local opposition; on May 20 that wolf was ordered killed because it had too many human interactions and had left Arizona and gone into New Mexico. In April and May two Arizona ranch families found wolves harassing their cattle.

Too often, this is the experience the people and the wolves in northeastern Arizona encounter. Genetic diversity and components of the captive wolf program were brought into question in the early 1990s by biologists who were concerned these captive populations contained genetic material from coyotes that had bred with the original wolves in the captive program.

The Fish and Wildlife defended the genetic diversity of the captive population, but now they claim it is lacking and thus the need to release the male wolf they have now killed.

History and science tells us that Arizona is on the northern fringe of the habitat Mexican gray wolves populated. Ninety percent of their habitat is in Mexico. How many are in Mexico, you ask? Not many. How many are in Arizona and New Mexico? More than 109 wolves is the official number because not every wolf is counted under this cruel experiment.

History also tells us that there were no large packs of wolves roaming Arizona; only a lonely and limited number of wolves that fled their primary habitat in Mexico and went north.

In addition to these fringe” habitat issues, we also now have wolf hybrids roaming the area. How these wolves entered the area no one knows, but authorities have recognized them and some are calling for these wolves to be removed.

The mythical aura of a wild wolf howling in the forest and claiming its ecological niche would be fine except for the fact that this area is not their primary habitat — never was, never should be. When you include the presence of a large number of people in and around the area of this cruel experiment, you can see what is coming.

The only people seeming to enjoy this cruel experiment are the scientists or government employees who get to run around the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest catching, snaring, tagging, taking wolf pups out of their dens and moving them to other dens, and wolf proponents that do not have to witness this cruelty to the wolves and people who live and work in these areas.

The Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest is not a laboratory; it is a landscape. It is not an unoccupied area where wolves can freely roam with nearly no human interaction, and it certainly isn’t an area where the wolf can be free of government employees continually harassing them.

I do not say this to disparage those working on this wolf program; I say it to demonstrate that when you release and maintain wolves in an area, where they were not in such numbers historically and where human populations are sprinkled in and amongst them, they will be harassed.

Is this what the public wanted? Has Fish and Wildlife been transparent in reporting all of this to the public? It certainly is not what we wanted and it’s time for this cruel experiment to stop!

Dan Bell is the president of the Arizona Cattle Grower’s Association.