Slaughterhouse North

Artwork by Michael DiMilo

By Geoff Carter

There was a time, not so long ago, when Wisconsin was considered to be a national leader in conservation. We had a long and storied tradition of vigilant stewardship for our lands, waters, and wildlife. Former Wisconsin Governor and U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, a longtime environmental activist, was the founder of the original Earth Day. Naturalist Aldo Leopold, who did much of his work in Wisconsin, described the interlinked networks between the land and man in in his book, A Sand County Almanac, in which he appealed for a morally responsible stance toward the natural world. 

Wisconsin has fallen on hard times. The DNR, and its science-based administration of natural resources, has been compromised by politically based interests that seek to advance the ambitions of special-interest groups rather than support a healthy conservation ethic. Republican donors, including big agriculture, construction PACs, and hunting lobbies have been largely responsible for this trend.

Recent legislation has relaxed shoreline development regulations, severely compromising our fragile waterfront ecosystems. New Republican policy has loosened restrictions on high-capacity wells, resulting in severely depleted water tables and dried-up lakes. It seems that Wisconsin has turned its back on its responsibility to the natural treasures within its boundaries. 

Nowhere was this more obvious than during the recent hunt—massacre—of Wisconsin’s wild wolf population. Last fall, after decades of careful management, the Wisconsin gray wolf population had reached the point where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife program decided to remove it from the endangered species list. Even though the Wisconsin DNR had already been planning to institute its traditional November hunt, Hunter Nation, a group linked to hunting activists, citing concerns that the incoming Biden administration might reinstate protections, sued to institute an immediate hunt. The group behind Hunter Nation’s lawsuit included members with close ties to Republican party, including the Koch Brothers, Kris Kobach, and Ted Nugent. 

On February 11^th, 2021, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Bennett Brantmeier ordered the DNR to “implement and follow their duty to hold the Gray Wolf hunting season in February 2021” forcing the DNR to hastily institute a lottery to allot 2,380—nearly twice the normal amount—licenses to 27,000 applicants. The DNR had instituted a quota of 200 wolves to be harvested, 81 of which were designated—according to treaty rights—to Wisconsin Native American tribes. Since the Ojibwe Tribe holds the wolf sacred, these animals would not have been touched. 

During the subsequent slaughter, licensed hunters using dogs, ATVs, steel traps, GPAs, and accompanied by numbers of non-licensed hunters, killed a total of 216 wolves, 20 percent of Wisconsin’s total wolf population. Many of the “hunters” reportedly engaged in the cruel practice of deliberately wounding wolves, leaving them to die long and agonizing deaths—which would not be counted. Since the hunt occurred during mating season, many of the females were pregnant. Forty-six percent of those killed were female; how many were pregnant is unknown. Eighty-six percent were taken by hounds, five percent by traps, and the remainder by other means. 

The true impact on wolf pack integrity and dynamics may never be determined, although, in the opinion of some conservationists, it may be “devastating” but there was also a cost in human terms. The hunt was not only a violation of the spirit of Wisconsin conservationism but a betrayal of the Ojibwe land treaty. 

According to Dylan Jennings, spokesperson for the Great Lakes Indian, Fish and Wildlife Commission, “This is a clear example of mismanagement and full disrespect to Wisconsin tribal nations with treaty protected rights. The decisions neglected science, and tribes have always adhered to their tribal quotas, and they fully expected the state to do the same. And, so, it’s a major disappointment. We could be looking at major implications for Wisconsin wolf packs for years to come.” (WPR Website, February 2^nd, 2021)

Hunters maintain that the wolf is a danger to livestock and pets and that their presence will deplete the deer population. In point of fact, wolves kill relatively few farm animals and hunting them en masse does not address the transgressors. For those that argue that the presence of wolves will compromise the deer population in Wisconsin, it might be helpful to consider that a population of 1,000 wolves could barely make a dent in the Wisconsin deer population of over 1.8 million. In point of fact, wolves’ predation of deer is beneficial. They cull old animals from the herd, protect forests by limiting overfeeding, and even help reduce collisions between vehicles and deer, thereby—indirectly—saving lives. 

Since their reintroduction into the wild, wolves have again become an integral and important part of the Wisconsin ecosystem. Not only do they help keep the deer population in check, but by doing so, also help maintain a healthy woodland ecosystem. Deer cannot overgraze and destroy foliage cover, saving soil from erosion. 

But beyond the practical implications of maintaining and protecting a strong wolf population is the belief that it is man’s duty and responsibility to live in harmony with and to protect the natural world. In his essay, “The Land Ethic” Leopold demands that members of a community treat each other with respect. He dreamed of expanding this concept, writing that a land ethic, “simply enlarges the boundaries of the community” to include not only humans, but also soils, waters, plants, and animals” (The Aldo Leopold Foundation Website).

The outright cruelty and profound brutality displayed by these “hunters” is shameful. They may sincerely believe—despite all scientific evidence to the contrary—that wolves are a threat, but they weren’t out there in the woods to protect anyone. These men and women were killing for sport and maiming other living creatures for nothing else but their own sordid amusement. 

Ironically, the excesses of these “hunters” will probably spur the federal to reinstate the gray wolf to the endangered list. They have become the engine of greater federal regulation. Because of the damage they’ve caused, the wolf may very well be on the endangered list for a long, long time. 

Let’s hope so.