Wyoming is moving forward with a minor law change that would allow wolves to be killed with vehicles

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – People are outraged by how one man ran to chase down a wolf After using a snowmobile to tape the injured animal's mouth shut and taking it to a bar last winter, he failed Monday to convince Wyoming lawmakers to ban the killing of predators with vehicles, as representatives of the livestock industry viewed the practice as useful means of controlling predator numbers.

After public opinion turned almost entirely against the practice, a legislative committee voted unanimously to pass a bill that would for the first time impose penalties for the prosecution of predators – but only under certain circumstances.

The bill, which passed with a 10-0 vote, would require the driver to be charged with animal cruelty if the animal survives the impact and is not killed immediately. The bill does not specify how the creature should be killed. However, failing to do so could mean a fine of up to $1,000 and loss of state hunting and fishing privileges for up to three years.

Additionally, shooting predators would remain legal under the measure, which may now be considered by the Wyoming Legislature this winter.

Wyoming, with its vast cattle and sheep populations, has a long history of curbing predators that kill livestock, said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, the state's travel, recreation, wildlife and cultural resources committee.

“What we have seen in recent years, after decades of fighting predators, is that we are gradually seeing attacks on the tools we use,” Magagna said. “As an industry, we simply cannot afford to lose any more of the tools we may need.”

The bill also has the support of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Brett Moline, the organization's director of public and governmental affairs, told the committee.

A dozen others spoke against the bill in person and via live video in public testimony limited to half an hour. Most came from Wyoming, but others followed from elsewhere.

“Do you want to be known as the state that legalized the slaughter of animals for sport?” Denver-area wildlife photographer Bill Masure asked the committee.

The bill misses the point of the entire issue of predator control, Glenda Meyer of Carlsbad, California, told the committee via video.

“This bill should read: 'Don't run over anything, in any way, for any reason.' If you're arguing about whether it's humane or whether it's on schedule or whether you should do it or not, the fact that you're going to hit anything with any vehicle is in itself inhumane,” Meyer said. “It’s incredibly disturbing.”

The fate of the wolf that struck western Wyoming last winter has prompted a new look at state policy toward wolves. Wildlife advocates have pushed back against the ranch state's reluctance to change laws written after long negotiations to remove federal protections for the species.

The wolf caught on camera lying on the floor of a Sublette County bar sparked calls for a boycott of Wyoming's $4.8 billion annual tourism industry, which is centered on Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, which provide prime wolf habitat not far from the wolf area was struck.

The organization has had little impact, with Yellowstone being on track for one busiest summer season on record.

Meanwhile, the man who hit the wolf – and killed it after displaying it – paid a $250 fine for illegal possession of wildlife but was not charged more harshly.

Investigators in Sublette County said their investigation into the wolf incident was stalled because witnesses refused to talk. District Attorney Clayton Melinkovich said via email Friday that the case remains under investigation and he could not comment on the details.

How often wolves in Wyoming are intentionally run over—for a quick death or for other reasons—is unknown. Such killings are not required to be reported and recorded cases like the Sublette County incident are rare.

The case drew attention to Wyoming's wolf-culling policies, which are the least restrictive of any state where the animals roam. Wolves kill sheep, cattle and wildlife, making them unpopular with ranchers and hunters in rural areas.

Across the region, state laws try to keep the predators away before reproduction from the mountainous Yellowstone ecosystem to other areas where ranchers raise cattle and sheep.

In most of the United States, wolves are federally protected as an endangered or threatened species, but not in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, where they live hunted and captured according to state laws and regulations. In Wyoming, wolves can be killed without limit in 85% of the state outside of the Yellowstone region.

Although few in Wyoming have spoken out about what happened to the wolf, authorities have been reluctant to change the law to stop mistreatment.