Gray Wolf

The shooting began in late February.

Within three days, twenty percent of the magnificent Gray Wolf population in Wisconsin had been slaughtered.

Removed from the federal endangered species list at the end of 2020, a hunting season was hastily authorized. Never before, at this time of year. In the middle of the Gray Wolf mating season.

At their moment of greatest vulnerability, wolf families were literally being blown apart by high tech firepower.

Was it remotely realistic to imagine that wolves would bond with mates and carry out annual breeding rituals — in the midst of a catastrophic carnage?

Hunted down on ATVs with hounds at the lead – over still snow-covered grounds, easier targets than ever to stalk and slaughter.

How might their shattered canine hearts, and our human hearts, even begin to carry this massive sorrow?

Through our tears, we searched the heavens for one final glimpse of their broken bodies, their soft, plush fur.

We caught the last, flickering glow of life, as it drained from their brave and innocent faces, their devastated amber eyes … uncontrollably sobbing, as we were, at this extravagant loss of such break-taking beauty.

Begging our angels for tender mercy.

In the arms of an angel, fly away from here … You are pulled from the wreckage … into the arms of an angel. May you find some comfort here.

Sarah McLachlan

A glorious, noble sentience. Forever lost.

We humans are not at liberty to destroy this Life.

So we will name it, here, for what it is. A terrorizing cruelty – a betrayal, desperate and reckless.

Crude-hearted slayers.

I am sorry I am sorry I am sorry I am sorry I am sorry …

But no word has the power to reach into such raw spaces of inconsolable grief.

Were we but able to howl out our agony — as surely, some of us did.

Humans hold no special favor to seek forgiveness.

Our greed and our dullness have ejected us from this grace.

When will we ever learn?

When will we ever learn?

When will we ever learn?

Wolf packs are extended family units. Multi-generational and co-collaborative in all respects – cooperative breeding, territoriality and hunting.

When lethal ‘management strategies’ are injected into this intelligent, highly functional ecosystem, the result is disaster.

Scientists tell us that when one or more members of a wolf family have been killed – especially an alpha female or male – the entire team is destabilized. Often to the point of complete disintegration, disbanding of the pack.

Gray Wolf survivors, whose support system has been obliterated, are hungry and looking for food. Unable to hunt wild prey as effectively as before, they are more likely to attack domestic animals.

Living up to the undeserved reputation, imposed by those who would blame them for lost livestock.

“The history of wolves in the US is one of eradication. They need much more care than they’ve been given.” Dr. Adrian Treves, NPR Science Friday

MEETING WOLF  There are no words inside his mouth, inside his golden eyes. So we stand, silent, both of us tense under the speechless but faithful trees. And this is what I think: I have given him intrusion. He has given me a glimpse into a better but now broken world. Not his doing, but ours.

Mary Oliver