Take Action: Save the Harl Butte Wolf Pack

Take Action: Save the Harl Butte Wolf Pack

Wolves in Eastern Oregon’s Harl Butte pack could be wiped out. It’s up to us to save them.

Gray Wolf. Photo: Stuart Seeger via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Gray Wolf. Photo: Stuart Seeger via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Imperiled Wolf Pack

Just nine wolves, including three pups, make up the Harl Butte pack. The pack ranges across eastern Oregon’s woods and mountains, but four of them have already been tracked, hunted and killed by the state of Oregon in 2017. The state has already ordered that another four be killed, and some ranchers have requested that the entire pack be wiped out.

There are barely a hundred wolves in the entire state of Oregon, and four killed is four too many. 1

In the 1900s, we nearly hunted wolves to extinction, and they were entirely wiped out in Oregon. 2 They returned for the first time just 18 years ago, and there are still barely more than 100 wolves in the entire state.

None of these animals has threatened humans, and they can be ordered killed for no more than preying on a handful of unattended cattle, often on public land.3 Of course no rancher wants to lose livestock, but the state already reimburses them for lost cattle.4

Unfortunately, this isn’t just happening in Oregon — Washington, Idaho and other states also actively hunt wolves for similar reasons. They hunt them from aircraft and bait them with sweet-smelling poisons like cyanide traps.5,6 But right now we’re focusing on Oregon as the most likely place where we can stop this senseless killing.

How You Can Help

Wolves are some of the most iconic — and ecologically important — animals in the American West. Here are two easy ways that you can help save them:

  • Take action. Urge Oregon Governor Kate Brown to end state-funded wolf killing.
  • Support our work. From Congress to the Cascades, we’re working to protect wolves. Your contribution will help us do more to save these magnificent animals.

Notes

1. “Harl Butte Pack,” Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Accessed Oct. 18, 2017.

2. “Idaho Wolf Crosses Into Oregon,” CNN, February 24, 1999.

3. Eric Mortensen, “ODFW approves killing two Harl Butte pack wolves,” Capital Press, August 4, 2017.

4. Amaroq Weiss and Wally Sykes, “It’s time to stop killing Oregon’s wolves (Guest opinion),” Oregon Live, September 13, 2017.

5. Madeline Farber, “Why Washington Decided to Kill Off Once-Endangered Wolves From Helicopters,” Time, August 30, 2016.

6. Cassandra Profita, “Conservation Groups Sue To Protect Wildlife From ‘Cyanide Bombs’,” Oregon Public Broadcasting, April 4, 2017.