For thousands of years, large numbers of wolves roamed Norway. Today, there are only about 30 left in the wild, and hunters are lining up in record numbers for licenses to kill half of them this hunting season, which is already well underway and goes through March.

More than 11,000 Norwegian hunters have registered for the chance to shoot 16 wolves. That’s roughly 763 hunters per wolf. You don’t have to be against hunting to know that this isn’t right. We, as human beings in this age of environmental stress and widespread extinction, need to be stewards of nature and take care of what wildlife remains.

Please join me in asking the Norwegian government to end these wolf hunts, so that this amazing animal, on the brink of extinction in Norway, can stand a chance.

Norway is famous for its measured policies, reasoned diplomacy and, above all, its defense of the environment. But that belies what’s going on with wolves, as well as Norwegian brown bears and wolverines. Just 1% of the country has been designated a "wolf zone", in which the animals are allowed to exist. But, even there, only three litters a year are permitted. Once three pairs of wolves have bred, all the rest can be shot.

Hunters, and the government issuing these licenses, claim that “culling” wolves is necessary to protect livestock. But the statistics totally disprove this. Every year, some 2 million sheep are released onto public land without supervision. Around 1,500 of them are killed by wolves. Far more sheep - around 100,000 - die from falling into crevasses, drowning, and disease.

After this hunting season, only 14 wolves would remain, assuming others aren’t killed by illegal hunting. That is not enough to sustain their population.This is extermination, pure and simple, and most Norwegians have already come out against it.

Please join me in asking Norway to halt the wolf hunt immediately and give them a chance to survive in the lands they have lived in for millennia.