Minnesota’s White-tailed Deer, Hunters and Wolves

Minnesota’s White-tailed Deer, Hunters and Wolves

According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, “based on the 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, the total annual economic impact of hunting in Minnesota exceeded $725 million and more than 85% of hunters in Minnesota hunt deer. There are more than 500,000 deer hunters in Minnesota, which means that about 1 out of every 10 Minnesotans hunt deer each year. The 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation estimated that more than 1.5 million people spent $621 million to observe, feed, or photograph wildlife in Minnesota during 2011.”

Hearing, observing, and photographing wolves is a major income-generator in states where there are still wolves, calling for greater protection. Dennis Anderson in his article “Wolves more likely to be delisted under Trump” (The Minnesota Star Tribune, Jan 24/25) asserts that “wolves have gained a lot of friends in recent decades, making politics, not biology or policy integrity, the major force driving their management.” This politicization of ethics, compassion and respect for wolves and other wildlife and the veil of wildlife “management” for commercial gain rather than being based on sound ecological science and sustainable biodiversity is lamentable. According to Faunalytics, wild mammals now make up just 4% of the total mammal biomass on earth. Farmed animals make up 60%, and humans and their companion animals make up the 34% that is left.

The prevailing attitude toward wildlife, exemplified in the sanitized language of “harvesting” is a sad reflection of the state of mind that sees the natural world as a source of exploitable resources in total disregard for animal sentience and the intrinsic and ecological value of wolves and other predators with whom human predators compete and continue to annihilate. Such disregard has contributed to climate change and accelerating loss of biodiversity around the world. Better “management” of our own species is long overdue along with a revision of our values and appetites.

Michael W. Fox

Author of The Soul of the Wolf.