The alleged torture and killing of an adolescent female wolf earlier this year in Wyoming has brought international outrage, a demand that the perpetrator be incarcerated and policies reformed to prevent any more cruelty to predators.
When it comes to wolves in Wyoming, where wildlife is plentiful and people are scarce, it’s open season, 24/7/365. No license is required in “predator zones,” which cover 85 percent of the state. In 2021, the Republican-led legislature passed a law calling for the extermination of 90 percent of the state’s gray wolves. The state also protects hunters’ identities, thanks to a 2012 law passed after the harassment of an Idaho wolf hunter whose name had been posted online.
It’s not hard to see how such standards for killing could lead someone like Cody Roberts, 42, to think it would be fun to mow down an adolescent female wolf with a 600-pound snowmobile, then drag her through a bar in Daniel, Wyo., and then pose for photos. This is what Roberts allegedly did on the night of Feb. 29. He taped the agonized wolf’s jaws shut, shocked her repeatedly with a shock collar, according to witnesses, and then dragged her outside where he shot her.
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Well, maybe not so easy for decent people to see. I’ve been trying to un-see for several days so I could bring myself to write about this barbarism. Videos and photographs quickly circulated around town and online, showing Roberts kneeling and grinning as he held up the suffering animal and a celebratory beer. Outraged animal-welfare activists worldwide have spread the word about Roberts and the obscene fate of a grievously wounded animal.
Yet Roberts was fined just $250 for illegal possession of “live, warm-blooded wildlife,” which — Hail, Mary — is against the law. I’m glad something is.
Nowhere near satisfied, animal-welfare groups are offering a $20,000 reward for anyone providing additional evidence to police and prosecutors that leads to Roberts spending at least one year in prison. Wayne Pacelle, president of the Center for a Humane Economy, also has given the poor wolf a name — Theia, for the Greek goddess of light, sight and prophecy — so that she will be remembered as a noble creature whose sacrifice will drive a movement toward more humane policies.
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To this end, the Center for a Humane Economy and other groups are calling for a ban on using snowmobiles to run down and crush animals, the abolition of Wyoming’s predator zones, and bans on the use of hunting dogs, wire snares and steel-jawed leghold traps.
If Roberts has a reason to feel he did nothing wrong, it is the lax Wyoming laws that have created a wolf-hunting free-for-all. But, really, what kind of state allows people to run over animals with a snowmobile? This is rhetorical, obviously.
I reached out to Roberts by phone but got no answer.
A legal analysis by the center suggests that Roberts still could be prosecuted under the state’s animal cruelty statute, which provides for felony-level penalties. But Wyoming officials disagree, saying that cruelty laws don’t apply to predatory species — defined, beyond wolves, as coyotes, red fox, stray cats, jackrabbits, porcupines, raccoons and stripe skunk. Theoretically, under current state law, all such animals could be tortured with impunity.
Officialdom has been annoyingly mum on policy related to wolves. In its first public statement about the Roberts incident just a few days ago, Wyoming Game and Fish officials cited a state law that they contend says any information regarding wolves taken in Wyoming is not public record.
This applies even to wolves killed in neighboring states. Wyoming hunters have killed Colorado wolves that wander too close to the border, and also have lured wolves into their state to be killed. Wyoming refuses to share wolf information with Colorado and reports only the aggregate number killed.
Colorado operates differently. Last year, it implemented a program voted on in 2020 to reintroduce wolves in the state where once they were plentiful. Citizens there apparently understand the valuable role wolves play in the ecosystem, as do at least some folks in Wyoming.
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Jim Keen, a veterinarian, epidemiologist and rancher in Wyoming, was among about 200 people who attended a Game and Fish Department hearing on Wednesday to express their outrage about Roberts. (“Those pictures,” said Lorraine Finazzo, an attendee all the way from South Carolina. “I couldn’t sleep.”)
Keen testified that the no-holds-barred approach to wolf killing actually poses a threat to hunting and ranching, in part because so many deer and elk in Wyoming have chronic wasting disease. In the absence of their natural predators, these animals pose a threat to hunters and others who eat them. Wolves, Keen said, selectively cull unhealthy animals from deer and elk herds.
Moreover, when hunters reduce the size of packs, wolves can no longer take down elk or moose, so they instead kill smaller animals such as sheep and calves.
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There’s never any excuse for torturing any animal under any circ*mstances. Roberts deserves to be punished — for the sake of justice and as a warning to others. If Wyoming doesn’t revamp its policies, Keen warned, the federal government might well step in and take over management of the wolves.
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) has condemned Roberts’s actions. But for Theia’s sake, and the sake of our shared humanity, let’s hope national authorities move quickly.
