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Hoppy had, however, crossed into Sublette County, where local grocery stores sell bumper stickers that read "Wolves -- Government-sponsored terrorists!" Some ranchers and farmers don't hold much love for wolves, which they see only as predators… despite the fact that many animals are, by their very nature, predators. It's a brutal fact of nature. It's how they survive.
In the end, Hoppy's venture outside the safety of Yellowstone Park's official boundaries proved fatal. After eight years spent traveling over thousands of miles, he was shot -- along with another male and a female wolf -- near the elk feeding ground a few miles outside Daniel, Wyoming on March 28. He became one of the first casualties in a resurrected war against wolves that began the day the federal government stripped Endangered Species protections from gray wolves across the northern Rockies.
Hoppy's death was reported to the state, as required under new Wyoming wolf rules, and word of his killing quickly spread across the Internet. The Salt Lake City Tribune picked up the story, and talked with several people who were fans of the old wolf with the bum leg.
"He died for nothing," lamented Salt Lake City resident Marlene Foard. "If there was a reason to kill him, I could live with that. But there wasn't."
Another reader wrote in an e-mail, "I think they have no idea what they have done by killing this particular wolf."
And Franz Camenzind, executive director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, said people knew wolves had been hanging around the feeding ground, but none had been seen attacking cattle herds or destroying human property. As Camenzind told the Salt Lake City Tribune, Hoppy was "a good wolf. He covered thousands of miles and didn't cause any trouble."
Come fall, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana expect to approve formal, legalized wolf hunts. Right now, except for a small area just outside Yellowstone in Wyoming, all you need is just a gun and a steady aim to legally shoot a wolf.
But there's still hope for the rest of the wolves in the northern Rockies. In the past, Earthjustice has opposed several previous versions of Wyoming's plans to declare wolves enemies of the state, and this time around we're heading back to court to press for reinstating ESA protection for gray wolves in the region.
Our goal is to get the federal government to come up with a more realistic wolf recovery plan… something that recognizes recent science findings about a species that fought for 30 years to recover from nearly a century of devastating slaughter. The current plan could allow Idaho, Wyoming and Montana to hunt down wolves far and wide, and reduce a population of 1,500 wolves across three states to a mere 300 survivors.
Sadly, Hoppy won't be among their numbers.
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