A buddy of mine recently posted on facebook the most amazing photos of him with a bunch of wolves. In addition to sending me over the moon with jealousy, I had to know more about where that was–since moving from Connecticut, and the nearby Wolf Conservation Center, I’d been missing los lobos.
Well, turns out that here in Southern California, in Lucerne Valley, Wolf Mountain Sanctuary maintains a similar mission, to educate the public and protect the wolf population in captivity and in the wild. Since 1980, rescued injured and abused wolves are brought to the sanctuary, which becomes their forever home. This is one of the few sanctuaries where you can, as a visitor, interact with a full grown pure wolf. Since the rescues cannot be rehabilitated for wild re-release, they must become socialized to human contact for their own preservation–not as pets, in fact far from it–but as interdependent creatures. Wolves are such an important link in the ecosystem, but humans have nearly decimated them, due to misunderstanding and ignorance. Hunting is again on the rise, so the future, which for a while had some rays of hope, grows more bleak as wolves are incorrectly demonized and shot, trapped, and poisoned. It is believed their numbers are down to about 3,000 now, in the wild, stuck in severely restricted/overbuilt habitat ranges.
I hope you’ll consider donating, or adopting a wolf, and maybe even plan a visit–I know I am.
On Monday, three days from now, the state of Idaho will launch the sale of 70,000 hunting permits to shoot and kill native wolves. That amounts to 318 guns for each of the 220 wolves targeted. There are only about a thousand wolves in the state, and the government plan is to cull more than 20% of them. Of course, the repurcussions are larger than the slaughtered majestic animals…lots of wolf pups born since the mating season will be orphaned, not yet armed with the skills to feed and protect themselves.
Tin or Aluminum—those are the traditional gifts to celebrate the tenth anniversary (Really? Here Dear…here’s a can…or some lovely foil)
Change by Doing 