Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar plans to remove gray wolves from the Endangered Species Act in the Northwest. This means that hunters would be allowed to shoot these animals, possibly with up to 1000 being killed during the season.

Obviously I’m completely against hunting of any kind, but let’s look at this from a non-vegan perspective. Salazar and other proponents of the removal of gray wolves from the endangered species list are getting ahead of themselves. Here’s a quote from the Center for Biological Diversity:

Even in the northern Rockies and Great Lakes where numbers of wolves have substantially increased, it is questionable whether they are fully recovered. Wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains number fewer than 200 breeding animals, far below the thousands that independent biologists have determined are necessary to avoid long-term genetic problems and decline, and the state of Idaho plans to kill many of the wolves in their state. Likewise, state plans in the Great Lakes states will allow killing of many wolves, even as disease is resulting in loss of many wolf pups. The severity of these threats suggests that wolves will not see any further recovery. Worse still, Fish and Wildlife was forced to retain protection for wolves in Wyoming because the state refused to provide sufficient protection.

Removing wolves from the endangered species list right now is dangerous not only to the species, but to the environments that have benefited from their replenishment. For example, when wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park, the amount of vegetation increased greatly since elk destroying the plants were presented with a new predator.

via Animal Rights @ change.org blog

Defenders of Wildlife’s Campaign to Save America’s Wolves