*Scroll for Updates and Information*

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is up to its usual shenanigans, playing games with science, misleading the people and playing into the hands and agendas of the leftist environmentalists. The USFWS has planned a public meeting in Augusta, Maine on June 8, 2011 in order to take public comments on the proposal to remove the gray wolf from Federal protection in the Western Great Lakes (WGL) Distinct Population Segment (DPS). What they are not telling the people is the truth, which for those who follow the workings of the USFWS, should come as no surprise.

Everyone should be made aware that what the USFWS is proposing is political only and doesn’t even have any semblance of science involved at all.

Consider! The gray wolf issue has become a conundrum that has no political, legal, or scientific resolve. It is a mess of giant proportions whose sole creator is the USFWS. They rightfully own it all. Because of this quagmire, Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg proposed in the United States Congress, H.R. 549, a bill that would exempt gray wolves from any tyrannical grip of the Endangered Species Act.

Therefore, it is of no coincidence that the USFWS would respond in the way they have by simply creating a “new” species of wolf. I’ll explain further.

While the wolf wars remained at a fever pitch in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, pressure was being put on the USFWS to remove gray wolves from Federal protection in the Western Great Lakes DPS. It is my opinion that the USFWS actually never intends to delist wolves but that doesn’t slow them from implementing their shell game.

To appease those putting on the pressure, the USFWS announced their intentions to delist gray wolves in the WGL, but what they didn’t explain in any honest fashion, this magical discovery of a brand new species of wolf, the eastern wolf, in which the USFWS declares, “that the gray wolf subspecies Canis lupus lycaon should be elevated to the full species C. lycaon.” How convenient I would say. What a better way to avoid H.R. 549 than simply renaming the wolf to eastern wolf. Should we now run back to Congress and have them amend the bill to just say, “wolves” of all kinds? Absolutely!

It is quite amazing how the USFWS plays these games with species and subspecies only to benefit their own agendas of what they intend to accomplish.

Regardless, people all across the U.S. should pay very close attention as to what is actually being proposed here.

The USFWS announced its intentions to delist the gray wolf in the WGL. In addition, it will remove 29 states from the list of states that provide habitat for the gray wolf because the USFWS have now decided after 38 years that gray wolves never actually lived in these states. Instead it was the eastern wolf.

In addition, it was announced that in the WGL DPS, both gray wolves and eastern wolves occupy the same territory. What then does that mean? I believe it is the intent of the USFWS to name the eastern wolf as an endangered species. Why else would they go to all this trouble? Should they do this, it effectively renders the delisting of gray wolves in the WGL as nothing but a political ploy to turn the cost of managing wolves over to the states and at the same time will be stripped of any means of controlling those wolves.

Once the USFWS announces the eastern wolf as endangered, any ideas of hunting or trapping gray wolves in the WGL will become impossible. Between gray wolves, eastern wolves and coyotes, even the most trained eye cannot distinguish between the three critters. How then can there be hunting and trapping?

Consider the remainder of the 29 states. With the eastern wolf declared an endangered species, the same effect will be realized. All hunting and trapping for any canines will effectively be halted. Hasn’t this been the goal of USFWS and their Pied Piper friends within the animal rights and environmental groups?

Maine is one state that faces a very serious problem already with a rapidly dwindling deer herd. Deer slaughtered by predators is one of the problems and even now with ESA restrictions in place and a fish and game department that refuses to address predator problems in any serious fashion, what little coyote control that is allowed with hunting and limited trapping, will be gone. What then happens to the deer herd and other species that are being decimated by the coyotes?

But if you think this isn’t bad enough, I’m afraid is does get worse. Wolves, coyotes and other canine members carry disease. Wolves are rampant carries of up to 30 infectious diseases, among them hydatid disease, that can be fatal to humans.

The naysayers will deny the existence of such diseases and some will acknowledge it exists but insist it’s never been a problem. That’s not true. It has been around and probably is in place to some degree in many of our ecosystems but we have never had the “perfect storm” in which this disease is enabled to spread.

Wolves, coyotes, foxes, etc. carry the echinococcus granulosus egg. They are known as the definitive or primary host. When they leave their scat (feces) behind, carriers also leave behind perhaps hundreds of thousand of tiny echinococcus granulosus eggs that actually can become airborne. These eggs remain alive and potent for long periods of time getting into the ground and vegetation, even the waterways, to be ingested by elk, deer, moose, cattle, sheep, etc. These animals become secondary hosts and most often develop cysts, where the tapeworm that grows from the eggs live and thrive. These cysts are found in lungs, liver, the brain and even in bones.

Humans can contract this disease by breathing in or ingesting these tiny eggs. Think of the possibilities. You’re out in the woods hunting, hiking or just taking a leisurely stroll. Knowingly or not you encounter wolf or coyote scat. You step in it or even worse, you decide to kick it out of the way or inspect it. Tiny eggs become airborne and you breath them in.

These eggs can get into water. On the same hike, you stop at your favorite pool for a drink of cool and refreshing mountain water. As a result you ingest the tiny eggs.

Wolves and coyotes regularly are hanging about ranchers, farms, residences, etc. or you let your dog run free. Your dog rolls in his favorite pile of wolf/coyote scat and comes home to play with the kids. The dog licks their face, etc. etc. Do you see the possibilities? Endless!

What makes the wolves such profuse carriers of this disease has a lot to do with diet and the extensive distances these animals are known to travel. Wolves make ungulates (deer, elk, moose, etc.) their main diet. Once the disease is established, the wolves can take down an infected elk or deer. They consume the worms and the process starts all over again. This is repeated hundreds of thousands of times resulting in unbelievable piles of scat dotting the countryside. It perpetuates until nearly every wolf and coyote is infected.

I learned in my early years of education that when you allow too many animals into too small areas, you get disease outbreaks. That’s what’s happening here. If the wolf and coyote populations are allowed to go unchecked the potential exists for some serious exposure to this disease.

In Idaho, already 2/3 of all gray wolves in that state alone, are infected with echinococcus granulosus eggs. It’s only a matter of time before we learn of our first human infection of hydatid disease. It is not easily detected and most times is discovered by accident. Should these cysts rupture, a person can die from the toxic shock.

Authorities will tell us that their states don’t have these diseases. Don’t necessarily believe them. Ask them how they know that. Lee Kantar, head deer biologist in Maine, told me Maine doesn’t have this disease but also admitted they never test for it either. It’s impossible to find something if you’re not looking for it.

So, as the USFWS begins their process of magically creating a new species of wolf, remember that should they also attempt to declare the eastern wolf an endangered species, all hunting and trapping of coyotes in the WGL and 29 other Eastern U.S. states will cease immediately. With that kind of protection, none of us can imagine what our ecosystems will look like with the spread of this and other diseases. This can’t be allowed to happen. We’ve never had to deal with this kind of political blackmail ever. Why would we willing create an atmosphere that can breed deadly diseases? We are not a Third World country.

The public hearing in Augusta, Maine is nothing more than a despicable political charade in order to hold the hunting and trapping world hostage to further the agenda of the environmentalists. They want their wolves and they intend to get them at any price. Are you willing to pay with your life or that of your family members so other can have their wolves? There is absolutely no science here and what is presented is intellectual garbage. Don’t buy into it.

*Update:* Almost immediately upon posting this article, I received and email containing the copy of an address that Dr. Valerius Geist made to the Boone and Crockett Club about hydatid disease. You can read that letter by following this link. Dr. Valerius Geist is a professor emeritus at the University of Calgary and a world renowned authority on wildlife ecology and animal behavior.

Tom Remington

Related Posts