AUGUST 2012 newsletter

AUGUST 路 SEPTEMBER 2012

Beautiful Zaltana one of our black phase Gray Wolves

Colorado Wolf And Wildlife Center | PO Box 713 | Divide, CO 80814 | 719.687.9742 | www. wolfeducation.org

WE LOVE to hear from you....

email us at tours@wolfeducation.org

e mails

I just wanted to thank you for a great tour experience on Saturday, August 25. My son & daughter in law brought me to the sanctuary for a birthday surprise and until we missed the turn I had no idea where we were going. I was elated. I had looked up this sanctuary about a year ago before I even lived in Colorado.

DON’T LET OUR WOLVES BECOME HOMELESS! - Help us Buy the Land of the Iberian Wolf Recovery Centre

I am the person who required the golf cart to get around the facility so you had to have 2 folks dedicated to the tour instead of just 1 and the guy driving the buggy was fabulous! Each time we got ready to move he made sure I was seeing and could see everything I needed to. He was great. And when we got to the end and the wolf howling song.....he said “thats my favorite song” and seriously it just started tears flowing...as if it wasn’t enough to get to see and learn about these marvelous creatures but to see the love and dedication from a straight up volunteer was beyond moving....

It is important to me that you know the level of care taken in making sure the handicapped provision of the tour was appreciated and without your efforts I could not have shared in this wonderful experience.

Thank you so very, very much!!

Jenifer Stone (oxygen dependent visitor)

We are writing from Grupo Lobo (Portugal), a non-governmental and non-profit organization, founded in 1985 with the goal to contribute to the Conservation of Iberian Wolf and its habitat in Portugal.

Besides, the monitoring projects in wild, Grupo Lobo was created a sanctuary, in 1987 - Iberian Wolf Recovery Centre - aiming to provide a suitable captivity environment for wolfs that cannot live in the wild. Today, we are urging buy the land where IWRC is at the moment. Being so, we are launching an international campaign through Indiegogo/Naturfunding, aiming to get the amount needed to buy the land.

So, we are contacting in order to introduce this campaign and request help.

Any kind of help is welcomed.

Here we leave the link to the campaign http://igg.me/p/175073?a=848902 All the best, Grupo Lobo

Colorado Wolf And Wildlife Center | PO Box 713 | Divide, CO 80814 | 719.687.9742 | www. wolfeducation.org

COLORADO WOLF AND WILDLIFE CENTER

PHOTOS

Back from a tour in Afghanistan, friend of the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center, Shawn Heiser gets reacquainted with Wakanda.

Look..no cavities

Thank you, Darlene! We had a wonderful visit again!

Carl and I would like to thank you for your wonderful hospitality on our second visit to the CWWC. Thank you for the wonderful tour and the great pictures! It was great to see you again as well as the wolves, especially Tala, Na’vi, Micah and Keara. We also enjoyed seeing Lika again but this time it was a real treat to see Takota and Nevada as well.

Visiting the Center has been the highlight of my birthday in May and Carl’s birthday last Sunday. We’ve been showing the pictures Mary took of us in May to just about everyone we encounter and now we have the ones you took of us this trip. We hope to visit again in the winter.

Thanks again!

All the best to you, Kathryn and Carl Hosbond

Colorado Wolf And Wildlife Center | PO Box 713 | Divide, CO 80814 | 719.687.9742 | www. wolfeducation.org

COLORADO WOLF AND WILDLIFE CENTER

CALENDAR

CWWC special events : these tours and events are in addition to our standard 10am, noon, 2pm and 4pm tours

FULL MOON TOUR September 1

FEEDING FEST TOUR Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday CALL FOR TIMES

Check in by 6:30pm Meet and greet one of our wolves at 7pm - Tour starts immediately after and lasts approximately 1 hour.

Wear warm clothes and good boots. Bring a camera and flashlight. Cocoa and coffee will be provided

Meet our resident animals during the feeding tour and observe them when they are most active...feeding time!

Learn about hunting, howling and hierarchy and communicate with the pack in a group howl!

ADULTS $25 KIDS $15 (8-12 yrs) No kids under 8 Future Full Moon Tours October 27 & 28* Nov 24 and Dec 29

Adults $20

*the first date must be full before the second date opens

Kids 12 & under $10

walk on the wild side

Thursday & Sunday CALL FOR TIMES Start by walking with a guide through the Center and seeing the wolves, coyote and fox then prepare for a 1/2 mile walk with one of our wolves down a dirt forest road.

RESERVATIONS REQUIRED FOR ALL TOURS AND SPECIAL EVENTS

719-687-9742

All tours have limited space and we have a no-cancellation policy from May-October

GOT MEAT ?

We are in need

of meat (and moneta ry donations!)

We can take your freezer burned or old We cannot ta meat. ke meat that is spoiled, se asoned, or spiced no r fish with bo nes.

7 1 9-6 8 7-9 7 4

2

Colorado Wolf And Wildlife Center | PO Box 713 | Divide, CO 80814 | 719.687.9742 | www. wolfeducation.org

SWEET GUY needS GOOD home KEBA - WOLF/HUSKY MIX

Come see CWWC’s newest addition.

Cody, who is our new wolf dog pup is now available for youth photos!

CALL KIM AT 719.896.0677 OR 686.6437 Colorado Wolf And Wildlife Center | PO Box 713 | Divide, CO 80814 | 719.687.9742 | www. wolfeducation.org

In a recent investigative series, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Tom Knudson of the Sacramento Bee exposed the inhumane, environmentally damaging, and fiscally irresponsible killing practices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program. Through interviews and the Freedom of Information Act, Knudson found that the program’s practices and culture are profoundly out of line with both sound environmental policy and fiscal responsibility. This document summarizes his findings.

Key Findings from Tom Knudson’s Investigation of Wildlife Services • Since 2000, Wildlife Services has mistakenly killed more than 50,000 non-target animals not considered threats to agriculture, using leg-hold traps, wire snares, and poisons. Among these animals are federally protected species such as golden and bald eagles, as well as over 1,100 dogs.

• Since 1987, at least 18 Wildlife Services employees and several members of the public have been exposed to cyanide upon inadvertently triggering M-44s, spring-loaded devices that are intended to poison coyotes with sodium cyanide.

• Many people have been injured during the course of Wildlife Services’ aerial gunning operations, and ten people have died in crashes since 1979.

• Scientific data has revealed that Wildlife Services’ slaughter of native carnivores, which has ostensibly been undertaken in an effort to protect livestock and big game species, is altering ecosystems in ways that diminish biodiversity, degrade habitat and invite disease.

• According to Wildlife Services’ own records, the agency has accidentally killed animals from more than 150 species since 2000—and insiders have indicated that agency records dramatically underestimate the impact that the “killing agency” and its practices have had on non-target species.

• Over the course of 8 years, Wildlife Services has spent approximately $550,000 and has brutally killed 967 coyotes and 45 mountain lions on just one project in northwest Nevada in the name of protecting mule deer, a big game species. After nearly a decade of needless spending and slaughter, mule deer populations have not improved.

• Indiscriminately killing coyotes to protect game species is a misguided and ineffective practice. Removing native carnivores from an ecosystem results in exploding populations of rodents and other small mammals that carry disease and compete with game species for food. It also leads, ultimately, to larger and smarter coyote populations.

• Scientists, former Wildlife Services employees, and others acknowledge that the agency’s killing practices are ineffective and can cause chain reactions of adverse environmental consequences.

Opportunities for Reform • Conduct a federal investigation of Wildlife Services’ practices, policies and protocols as requested by Representatives Campbell, DeFazio, Gallegly, and Speier, as well as the American Society of Mammalogists.

• Support H.R. 4214, the Compound 1080 and Sodium Cyanide Elimination Act, a bill that would ban the use of two deadly poisons—sodium fluoroacetate and sodium cyanide—to kill wildlife. These poisons represent a substantial threat to both animals and humans.

• Prohibit costly and dangerous aerial gunning activities, especially in wilderness areas.

• Provide incentives and technical assistance to ranchers to promote adoption of non-lethal methods for resolving conflicts between livestock and predators.

• Prohibit use of indiscriminate body-gripping traps (leg-hold traps, Conibears, and snares) on public lands and mandate a 24hour trap check time in all states.

• Mandate transparency and accountability in all program actions.

Emphasize recordkeeping.

• Define how livestock losses must be documented and who must verify losses.

• Require science-based decision-making in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. At present, Wildlife Services is relying on an outdated and inadequate programmatic environmental impact statement.

• Eliminate the practice of killing native predators to artificially boost populations of ungulates, such as elk and deer.

• Mandate that Wildlife Services consistently research and evaluate the efficacy, as well as the costs and benefits, of any wildlife control program.

• Conduct an ethical review of Wildlife Services’ policies and practices. Require ethics training for staff and cooperators.

• Redirect program spending toward development and enhancement of public education in non-lethal approaches to avoiding conflict with native wildlife.

As Knudson’s series reveals, Wildlife Services and its inhumane, ineffective practices are in need of drastic reform. We ask our legislators to stop the use of taxpayer dollars for the indiscriminate slaughter of America’s native predators and non-target species.

Colorado Wolf And Wildlife Center | PO Box 713 | Divide, CO 80814 | 719.687.9742 | www. wolfeducation.org

Help Ban Predator Poisons

Urge Your Rep to Support H.R. 4214 - The Compound 1080 and M-44 Elimination Act Representatives John Campbell (R-CA) and Peter DeFazio, (D-OR) have introduced H.R. 4214- the Compound 1080 and M-44 Elimination Act-- a federal bill that bans the use of two deadly poisons- sodium fluoroacetate, (Compound 1080) and sodium cyanide- presently used nationwide for lethal predator control.

Each year thousands of coyotes and foxes are intentionally killed with these two poisons by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services (WS) program at the behest of agribusiness and private ranchers- at taxpayer expense! Non-target animals, including pets, birds, and threatened and endangered species fall victim to these poisons. People have also been severely harmed by both Compound 1080 and sodium cyanide.

These poisons also pose a national security risk. The FBI has declared both as “highly toxic pesticides judged most likely to be used by terrorists or for malicious intent.”

“Compound 1080 and M-44 sodium cyanide capsules are lethal, dangerous and unnecessary poisons,” said Rep. DeFazio. “They pose a very serious threat to our nation’s citizens, wildlife and domesticated animals. I am pleased to support this legislation, which would halt the use of these needlessly dangerous poisons permanently.”

Please write to your Congressional Representative; urge support for and co-sponsorship of H.R. 4214- the Compound 1080 and M-44 Elimination Act: Submit comments here: www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h4214/show For bill information and to see if your Representative is already a co-sponsor visit: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.4214: Points to convey in your letters: • Strongly urge your Rep. to support and co-sponsor H.R. 4214- the Compound 1080 and M-44 Elimination Act. • This bill will protect wildlife from cruel and dangerous poisons that are ethically and ecologically unjustifiable and pose a threat to homeland security and to non-target animals including pets and protected species.

• Spending limited tax-dollars on wasteful predator poisoning programs is fiscally irresponsible and unjustifiable at a time when Congress is trying to reduce the deficit and cut ineffective and wasteful programs.

• Compound 1080 is one of the deadliest poisons on earth and has no antidote.

• Death from Compound 1080 is inevitable, but this ingestion causes intense pain and suffering for an extended time; animals suffer convulsions and muscle spasms for hours before dying.

• Compound 1080 is a potential terrorist threat to our water and food supplies.

• People have been seriously harmed by M-44s and Compound 1080; at least 16 people have died from exposure to Compound 1080.

• Killing coyotes and other wildlife with poisons is not the answer to real or perceived conflicts with livestock.

• Rather than killing predators, ranchers should employ better animal husbandry practices such as guard animals, electronic sound and light devices, night penning, lambing sheds, prompt carcass removal and appropriate fencing.

For more information visit www.ProjectCoyote.org and http://projectcoyote.org/CoyotesUnderFire.pdf Vieques Humane Society - Vieques, Puerto Rico, a small island located

off the mainland’s east coast, for many years offered no veterinary or animal rescue services. During the early 1980’s, a handful of concerned immigrants from the states and a few local residents took a serious interest in improving the welfare of the animals. They began by feeding the island’s multitudinous strays and soliciting the help of veterinarians from Puerto Rico to sterilize them. By 1987, the Vieques Humane Society and Animal Rescue, Inc. was officially established as a non-profit organization. Today they still offer the only veterinary services on the island and have developed strong community based programs.

See available dogs at www.viequeshumanesociety.org CWWC will help you cover adoption fees - 719.687.9742

TCRAS has a young Border Collie named Molly. She would need training, etc. Her owners never spent time with her and I don’t believe she was socialized If you are at all interested, please call Mary, 719-686-7707

Colorado Wolf And Wildlife Center | PO Box 713 | Divide, CO 80814 | 719.687.9742 | www. wolfeducation.org

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Colorado Wolf And Wildlife Center | PO Box 713 | Divide, CO 80814 | 719.687.9742 | www. wolfeducation.org