Wolves Endangered by Political Predators ~ My Seattle Times op-ed

(original artwork by Gabriel Campanario/The Seattle Times)

Dear Friends,

Here is my new opinion piece for The Seattle Times (4.31.2011) that appears in the Sunday print edition as well as the online edition at this link. Please READ ON AT THE ORIGINAL LINK:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2014913892_guest01peterson.html

Please get involved in protecting endangered species, especially the wolves, by visiting:

Natural Resources Defense Council at : http://wwwnrdc.org

Or Earth Justice and Defenders of Wildlife: http://wwwdefenders.org

And thanks for visiting The Seattle Times and, if you can, making a comment or recommending it to your friends and Facebook pages. The more we howl to Congress about this precedent-setting gutting of the Endangered Species Act, the less this kind of playing poker with other species will be allowed.

The back story on this "wolf rider" attached to the budget bill that passed April 15th, is that Sen. Tester, Montana, sponsored this bill to assure himself re-election in 2012. And the Democrats, desperate to keep Democratic control of the Senate, sacrificed the wolves to keep their margin in the Senate. This is exactly why the Endangered Species has, until now, always insisted on science, not politics, guiding the delisting and listing of species.

And here's another of my favorite wolf photos from the reintroduction of the first packs of wild wolves to Yellowstone in 1995.

(U.S. Fish and Wildlife photo, 1995 First wolf pups born in Yellowstone, 1995)

(photo courtesy of wolf biologist Rick McIntyre, author of THE WAR AGAINST THE WOLF: 
America's Campaign to Exterminate the Wolf  (Voyager Press)

Also, I have written extensively about the original wolf reintroduction in my first memoir, BUILD ME AN ARK: A LIFE WITH ANIMALS, as well as other articles for The Christian Science Monitor, The Huffington Post, and The Seattle Times.

A big howl out to all of the pack who are speaking for the wolves and all other endangered species! Work at the state and federal levels to make your voices heard.