Sen. Tom Casperson has been trying for more than five years to legalize a hunt for gray wolves in a portion of the Upper Peninsula.
With the exception of one season of hunting the wolves, the Escanaba Republican has been thwarted by the voters and the courts. But he’s trying, once again, to get the hunt back on, if and when the animals are removed from the endangered species list.
On a party-line vote of 27-10, Republicans passed the bill that would give the Natural Resources Commission the authority to name gray wolves as a game species that can be hunted if they’re removed from the endangered species list by Congress.
The path to the newest version of the legislation has been long and complicated, starting in 2011 with a bill to allow both the Legislature and the Natural Resources Commission to designate the gray wolf as a game species. Casperson has continuously said that the growing population of wolves was becoming a threat to livestock and pets in the Upper Peninsula.
“We still have a problem up there, and it’s severe,” he said.
That early bill allowed for a gray wolf hunt, but opponents gathered enough signatures to stop the bill. By 2013, enough legal wrangling happened to authorize a hunt. But in 2014, the U.S. Humane Society embarked on another petition drive to stop the hunt. In response, two pro-hunting groups were able to get the signatures for pro-hunting ballot measures, but voters rejected both those measures in November 2014.
The Legislature passed yet another bill, but the courts rejected that measure, because it dealt with more than just designating the wolf as a game species, adding free hunting licenses for veterans to the bill.
“A federal judge ruled against the language, so we’re just running the same bill without that language,” Casperson said. “If you look at the vote and who voted on it. We had the major cities go against it and they’re not dealing with the wolves. The counties that supported us were the rural areas that have to deal with that kind of stuff.”
State Sen. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor, offered an amendment, which failed, that would remove the $1-million appropriation from the bill that makes it immune from a vote of the people.
“Regardless of how you feel about the issue of whether or not an un-elected body of folks should be able to designate an animal as a game species, the will of the people needs to be heard in this chamber and throughout the state,” she said. “Sixty-four percent of the people in the state said they disagreed with a wolf hunt. We have to allow this legislation to go forward with appropriation so if they disagree, they can take action again.”
Casperson blamed the Humane Society of the U.S. for putting millions into an ad campaign that supporters of the wolf hunt couldn’t match.
“It’s frustrating when those who are dealing with the actual issue are rejected or ignored and people who don’t even live in the affected area are dictating to us how we’re going to do this,” he said. “I just reject that out of hand.”
The Humane Society, however, blasted Casperson for bringing the matter up again, despite widespread public opposition.
“Michigan voters’ intentions could not be clearer. The vast majority do not support the trophy hunting and trapping of Michigan’s wolves,” said the Humane Society of the U.S. in a statement.
The bill — SB 1187 — now moves to the House for consideration.
Comments
Wolves and other top predators are necessary for our environment and play an important role in population control of other species. In Florida where the wolf and Florida panther are all but extinct, due to hunting and over development, there is a huge problem with over populations of raccoon and other species that people are now designating as pests. As such these animals are being trapped and killed because they are too many to release them back into the wild. The problem of their over population would not exists if the wolf and panther were still in healthy numbers. The IRS allows for ranchers to recuperate losses due to predation, predation from wolves. There is no need to kill off these animals. Wolves are shy creatures by nature and pose no direct threat to humans, despite our depictions in media. For centuries native peoples have revered the wolf. There is a reason. It is about time we respected these and other animals in our world. They have a place. It’s time we respected that place.
The Government also pays for their losses…. 1 cow calf pair in Washington STate was recently paid over 7000.00 for 1 pair