Press Release: Howling For Wolves comments on yesterday’s U.S. House of Representatives vote on Joint Resolution 69 regarding the killing of wolves and bears in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 17, 2017
CONTACT: Dr. Maureen Hackett, Howling For Wolves, 612.250.5915

Howling For Wolves comments on yesterday’s U.S. House of Representatives vote on Joint Resolution 69 regarding the killing of wolves and bears in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska

(St. Paul, Minn.) – Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives approved Joint Resolution 69, which revokes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s rule that banned killing predators including grizzly bears and gray wolves indiscriminately in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The rule was intended to stop the rampant killing through cruel methods of predators in remote wilderness national refuges. The killing is justified with bizarre reasoning that includes the erroneous belief that game animals such as elk will have higher numbers. Basic ecological principles are ignored to appeal to trophy hunting even though this does not make any sense and can actually degrade the wilderness that sustains game animals. Wildlife in Arctic National Wildlife Refuges need protection from this indiscriminate killing disguised as “predator control.” Cruel methods include aerial gunning down of wolves and bear after they are run to exhaustion, killing bears and wolves with traps and snares, and killing wolves and bears with their pups in their dens.

Dr. Maureen Hackett, founder and president of Howling For Wolves, a Minnesota-based wolf advocacy organization, said in response:

“Incredibly, backers of this resolution voted to support extreme, barbaric, and primitive methods for killing of wolves and bears in a wildlife refuge. Howling For Wolves is disgusted, and will continue to support protecting wildlife, such as wolves and bears, from being killed barbarically.”

House Joint Resolution 69 is a Congressional Review Act measure, a rarely-used action that allows Congress to repeal the last administrations’ federal regulations passed in the last six months with a simple majority of votes.

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Howling For Wolves is a Minnesota-based wolf advocacy organization that formed in 2012 to educate the public about the wild wolf to foster tolerance and to ensure the wolf’s long-term survival. Howling For Wolves opposes recreational wolf hunting and trapping and all wildlife snaring. We currently support the continuation of federal protections for the wolf by the Endangered Species Act.
www.HowlingForWolves.org.