By now, you have likely read or heard about the heartbreaking torture and killing of a wolf in Wyoming.1 The details are horrific. This yearling wolf–who some have named Theia–was run down by a 700-pound snowmobile and incapacitated, her mouth was taped shut, and she was paraded, clinging to life, around a local bar, before being killed out back. This was torture.
The attacker–Cody Roberts, of Wyoming–was able to legally crush the young wolf with a snowmobile and ultimately kill and skin her because gray wolves in Wyoming are not protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and have nearly no protections in the state.
Without the protections of the ESA, wolves can be killed on sight in 85 percent of the state of Wyoming. That means that a wolf can be trapped, shot, or crushed by a snowmobile, and that state and federal animal cruelty and conservation laws do not apply.
The attacker’s only infraction, as far as Wyoming is concerned, was not killing her faster.
These wolves need protection, friend. We are working with our partners on the ground in Wyoming to support change at the state level and we are leading the charge in pushing Congress and the Administration to finally protect gray wolves under federal law.
In the Interior Department’s February 2nd decision not to protect wolves in Wyoming and the region, the agency quoted the current Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, in saying, “I am committed to ensuring that wolves have the conservation they need to survive and thrive in the wild based on science and law…”
A mere 26 days later, Theia was tortured and killed. While Secretary Haaland may not have envisioned the brutality that would follow her agency’s decision, Wyoming’s intolerance for wolves was and is well known. And if her commitment is sincere, it is time to act and protect wolves under the Endangered Species Act.
Make a gift to keep us in the fight to save wolves in the Western United States and beyond.
The Endangered Species Coalition is a leader in the fight to regain Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the Western United States and everywhere else they face unbearable threats.
- We have organized Congressional letters-of-support for protection and brought experts to Washington, DC to make the case for saving these wolves.
- We bring hundreds of conservation organizations together around the shared goal of fighting for wolves.
- We mobilize hundreds of thousands of activists to pressure decision-makers to act. Our request of the Administration has not wavered. And we are not going anywhere.
The fight for justice for Theia and for change to protect wolves will not be easy. While there is widespread condemnation of the attacker’s actions–so far, no state or federal officials have committed to change. When this moment fades from the spotlight, we need to have made real progress in protecting wolves from future attacks and to allow them to recover. I hope that you will join us in this fight with a gift of any amount today.
Thank you for your commitment to wolves and wildlife. .
Sincerely,
Susan Holmes
Executive Director
Endangered Species Coalition
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PS. Are the links not working? Please support our work to save wolves at this URL: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/save-wolves-nationally2
1. https://www.endangered.org/wyoming-wolf-tortured-and-killed-usfws-must-act/
8 comments on “Stop the Torture and Killing of Wolves”
What happened to Theia has been in the forefront of my mind all week ir upsets me tremendously and it breaks my heart.One of the things that really gers to me is that Theias dignity was deliberately taken away by her mouth being taped shut and then paraded around a fucking BAR….one of the proud symbols of fucking blue collar manhood…..while she was in horrible pain after this POS individual crushed her while sitting on his goddam snow mobile.Then he destroyed her dignity further my taking a video while trying to “kiss her…..this story has made me sad and enraged all week….and the sadness and rage has nit gone away.What also enrages me that not enough people care…..note that noone has commented here…..I hate what Americans have become…..on every issue….even the so-called democrats…..even Biden…..this is part Bidens fault too….why did he not reverse Trumps rulings??…..he is afraid of the ranching and hunting people in the Northwest…..so the poor wolves are being slaughtered partly because Bidrn I’d making sure he keeps his mouth shut.
Well Charles, Biden is too busy trying to destroy the American way of life to give a crap about the beautiful wolves. This man who did this to Theia should have his mouth taped shut and paraded around before being fed to her pack. Please do not bring politics into this. I am a conservative in most things but believe we do not have the right to kill animals because we can. We need to find common ground when we can in order to make any positive changes. You would be surprised how many conservative I know are part of groups to save and protect animals. I truly hope that these beautiful animals will be put on the ESL.
This isn’t as much a matter of this wolf’s dignity as much as it a matter of his mental illness. This is true sadistic psychopathic behavior and beyond being arrested and locked up, he needs to be in a mental institution. To Intentionally tape shut the mouth of any animal their only defense shows he is a true coward. To sadistically insult her by kissing her on camera mocking her and taunting her beguiles a true sadist. Cody Roberts is a sick man. I hope for the rest of nature he gets the help he needs soon. For all of us, I hope they make a decisoin soon to lock him up, and for the remainder of the lives of all wild animals, I hope he gets locked up for life. This is not a man who belongs in any society, animal society or human society, wild or not.
I feel the same
Bastard
I am sick over this. I think giving the tortured wolf a name will help people identify and remember her. Where are the real men ,the ones with some empathy?
I too have lost sleep and am absolutely heartbroken and disgusted by this monstrous act. Support wolf and wildlife advocate organizations like this amazing one, become a billboard for animal rights (t-shirts, bumper stickers, etc), sign petitions, write to the White House/DOI Scty Haaland who have inexcusably failed to relist wolves, write to your electeds (local, state, fed) that N Rocky gray wolves MUST be back on the ESA, write a letter to the editor, read about wolf history or unwarranted wolf villainization in your state and elsewhere, tell her story to friends and family members. Let Theia shine as the goddess of light she has come to represent for these majestic creatures who deserve to live a life free of human terror, and who are needed by their families, communities, and ecosystems.
This is a long held mentality in the US West. If you read some of the horror stories of wolf and wolf cub killings in the late 1800s and early 1900s, you’ll see that this POS is part of that mentality. Part of the problem is that wolves have always been given negative personae and part is economics. Many (not all) in our western states believe that ranchers are “entitled to graze their animals on public/federal lands…and they will defend that ‘right’ with the deaths of any wolves they encounter.