Blood In The Woods; WI Wolf Kill Hits 110

The DNR reports that 110 wolves have been shot to death, or trapped and then shot and killed, in a season barely a week old.

And remember when hunting lobbyist and former Redgranite GOP State Sen. Bob Welch predicted that without dogs, not one hunter would be able to kill a wolf?

Bob Welch, executive director of the Wisconsin Hunters Rights Coalition, an organization that was active in lobbying for the season and also in authoring the legislation creating the hunt, said hunters who cannot use dogs won't kill wolves.

"I think it would be very unlikely you'd even get one," Welch said.

The only merciful news in this disgraceful misadventure is that dogs were to have been permitted for the first time in the hunt after Dec. 2, and it looks like all this year's killable wolves will have been 'harvested' by that point.

The dogs would have added a new element of terror to wolf packs, and inevitable confrontations would have led to dead hunting dogs, too.

The dog issue is also still in the courts.

This year's permissible 'harvest' is substantially higher than last year's, but with license fees cut by in half by Walker in his budget to just $49, and perhaps greater awareness of where the wolves den - - and the use of bear bait that attracts wolves, too - - I'm sure the bear and wolf hunt lobbies will press for an even higher kill next year.

Walker and his legislative allies are bringing certainty to Wisconsin wildlife.