Urgent: Contact Your Senators to Oppose Anti-wolf Budget Bill Riders!

Gray wolves desperately need your help to keep their Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections. Thanks to this popular wildlife law, we still have wolves in the west, including the Yellowstone region, New Mexico, and Arizona, playing their part in the balance of nature.

But some politicians want to throw wolves off the ark.

A rider attached to the must-pass budget bill will remove protections for endangered wolves in the northern Rockies, and possibly Washington and Oregon, and open the door for state wildlife agencies to kill wolves on behalf of special interests. The state of Idaho’s official position is that there should be zero wolves in the state. Montana wants to institute a wolf hunting season.

Please contact your Senators again. If the budget bill passes with an anti-wolf rider, the fate of gray wolves will be decided by state agencies that say they will kill them. This is like putting banks in charge of financial reform.

Removing gray wolves’ endangered species protections will reverse hard-won wolf reintroduction successes in places like the Yellowstone region, where reintroduced wolves have brought astounding ecological and economic benefits.

And anti-wolf riders put more than wolves in peril -they threaten all wildlife and the ESA itself. Never before has Congress stripped ESA protection from a single species – this sets a dangerous precedent extinct any animal based on political whims rather than the sound science the ESA requires.

Please contact your Senators today.
Tell them that you vote and you want them to commit to strongly oppose anti-wolf riders and legislation in any way they can, including voting against budget bills with anti-wolf language or amendments.

You can find contact information for your Senators by entering your state here, or you can call the Capital Switchboard ((202)224-3121, toll-free: 1-866-220-0044) and ask for your Senators’ office. You can then speak with a member of your Senator’s staff or leave a voicemail.

You can also https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ and remind him of his own position that policy decisions should not be made through budget bills. Ask him to veto any budget bill containing any policy riders, including those that endanger wolves and the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Thank you for your work to stop this horrific precedent that would eliminate protections for gray wolves, weaken the ESA, and leave these magnificent animals without a safety net against the threat of widespread killing. At this crucial time for wolves and other wildlife, your actions are critical.

Photo courtesy of the Endangered Wolf Center