Contact WA’s Fish and Wildlife Officials TODAY to Demand Accountability for their Silence After Four Wolves Were Poached in NE Washington!

Washington wildlife officials continue to fail wolves at every level. Back in February, WDFW staff came across 4 poisoned wolves near the Canadian border, yet waited until months later to launch an investigation. And to make matter worse, at the last Fish & Wildlife Commission meeting where wolf rulemaking was supposed to occur, Commissioners asked staff about these rumors that had been floating around for months about an ongoing wolf poaching ring, to which they were immediately shut down from speaking about the issue publicly by Vice Chair Linville and she demanded that such a conversation be taken offline, out of the public view.

“For the last few years, the Northwest Animal Rights Network (NARN) has been critical of wolf recovery efforts in Washington because these efforts have been wrought with politics every step of the way,” says Rachel Bjork, NARN’s president. “The fact that we are just now hearing about these wolf deaths months later, and not directly from WDFW, leads us to believe that the department has no real interest in accountability to the public.” Please read the full press statement from NARN and partnering groups here.

BACKGROUND:
Wolf Mortalities from Poaching Incidents
Currently, Washington’s gray wolves are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. Most of those wolves live in the eastern Washington which happens to be prime wolf habitat. The Wedge Pack was first confirmed as a pack in 2012. That same year, WDFW killed all members of the pack following repeated attacks on livestock from the Diamond M Ranch. Wolves repopulated the area in subsequent years. In 2020, WDFW again killed all members of the pack following livestock attacks. As of December, WDFW estimated there were nine wolves in the pack.

Since wolves naturally returned to Washington state in 2008, there have been a number of confirmed poaching cases, although arrests and prosecutions are rare.

In May 2021, a female wolf that had pups was illegally killed in Northeast Washington near the Sheep Creek area of Stevens County. The female died of a gunshot wound, according to a WDFW necropsy. The wolf was believed to be the breeding female from the Wedge Pack. No charges or arrests have been made in that poaching case.

In 2019, a wolf was poached near the Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge, also in Stevens County. There has been no conviction in that case despite reward money totaling $10,000.

In two other cases, one poaching suspect was prosecuted in 2015, but the case was dismissed. And in 2016, a Palouse farmer was prosecuted, found guilty and ordered to pay a $100 fine.

There were a minimum of 206 wolves and 33 packs in Washington state in 2021, according to an annual survey conducted by state and tribal biologists.

Wolf Mortalities from the WA Dept. of Fish & Wildlife
Over the last 8 years, the Department of Fish and Wildlife has killed 30+ state endangered wolves. At least 26 out of those 30+ wolves killed by the State wildlife agency have been killed in response to complaints from just one rancher.

Washington’s Governor- Jay Inslee- wrote a letter instructing the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to focus on finding nonlethal solutions for conflicts between livestock and wolves. Inslee asked WDFW Director Susewind to accelerate an ongoing update to the lethal management guidelines, with the goal of significantly reducing the role of lethal removal in the wolf management program. He called for nonlethal methods to be prioritized in the Kettle Range, which has been home to the discontinued Profanity Peak, Sherman and Old Profanity Territory wolves, and now the Togo and Kettle Packs.

Please take a moment to write to Governor Inslee's office, to the WA Fish & Wildlife Commission, the WDFW Director and the Wolf Policy Coordinator to voice your outrage at them withholding transparency from the public and co-Commissioners of the detriment to wolves.