We just learned that Idaho Wildlife Services has killed wolf pups that were part of the Timberline wolf pack. Some the pups were killed inside the den and others were killed at the site where the parents moved them, trying to save the remaining pups from harm. The pack was named after the local high school in Boise, their mascot is the wolf. According to Carter Niemeyer, who tagged one of the first Timberline wolves back in 2003, “The two adult wolves have lost their pups but the mother wolf still revisits her den... wondering where her pups have gone..... her instincts telling her she needs to feed and nurse them but only the smell of something horrible lingers at the den site... the stench of humans... the kind that even kill pups that haven't experienced life... I've seen and heard it all in my career.”

We need your help to put a stop to the cruel and senseless killing of these young pups.

This is just the beginning of the eradication campaign launched by Idaho to slash up to 90% of gray wolves from the landscape. Approved by the state legislature and signed by the governor, their stated goal is to decrease the population from 1500 to 150 wolves. The state of Montana passed similar legislation, seeking to eradicate 85% of its wolf population. Their methods mirror an archaic era of bounties, traps, snares, night raids, hunting hounds and yes, even the killing of nursing pups and mothers in their dens.

As a resident of Idaho and someone who was part of the team to reintroduce wolves back into the Northern Rockies and Yellowstone, I am deeply appalled that these states are attempting to erase this tremendous recovery effort supported and celebrated by the American public.

We need your help as we launch a multi-pronged effort to put a stop to this eradication campaign that will destroy America’s wolves.

This week, we are appealing to Secretary Vilsack, who oversees the USDA Wildlife Services program, including Idaho Wildlife Services, to immediately suspend the practice of slaughtering weeks-old wolf pups on public lands.

We have recruited hundreds of the leading wildlife scientists in the world, including Jane Goodall, E.O.Wilson, George Schaller, and Thomas Lovejoy to call on President Biden and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to provide emergency protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, including Yellowstone.

In addition, we are pursuing legal and legislative actions to stop the culling of 90% of the wolves in the Northern Rockies and Yellowstone. IWCN joined the Western Watershed Project and 70 conservation, indigenous and animal welfare groups to file a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to re-list the gray wolf as an endangered species throughout the American West under the Endangered Species Act. The extraordinary methods they are using are intended to decimate wolves once again from the landscape. We are also working with partners, including Native American tribal leaders and supportive elected officials to craft a National Bison, Grizzly and Wolf Restoration Act. Bison and grizzly are also common targets of the ranching industry leaders who refuse to coexist with wildlife despite measures that would allow them to do so. It is time to pass legislation to guarantee conservation of each of these keystone species in perpetuity.  Finally, IWCN is working on the ground, with federal and state agencies and elected officials to provide the funding, expertise and tools needed to expand coexistence, for wolves and other imperiled wildlife.