Today we are featuring the abusive and illegal hound hunting practices of Brian (Ratt) Nicks of Medford, Wisconsin. Ratt Nicks is a known coyote and bear hunter, and one of the hunters who successfully ran down wolves with his dogs in the first hound hunt for wolves in the United States in modern history, which took place in Wisconsin in 2013. When gray wolves are not federally protected, it is mandatory to hunt them with hounds in Wisconsin, according to the state’s legislative rules.
Third from Left: Brian (Ratt) Nicks with two wolves killed with the aid of hounds in Wisconsin’s 2013 wolf hunt.
Here we present three short videos published on Nick’s own Facebook page, which document his hounds attacking and mauling live coyotes. All of the videos were filmed in the last year. Nick’s own videos demonstrate why hound hunters in Wisconsin should never again be allowed to hunt wolves with hounds, as it can be assured that they will be allowed to illegally fight with wolves, as has been repeated proven through the documentation of multiple hound hunters using their dogs to maul their intended prey.
Currently, federal and state officials are scrambling to strip wolves in Wisconsin of their federally protected status, so abusers like Nick’s can continue in their sick and twisted illegal sport of running them down and letting their dogs finish them off. In one of Nick’s videos, when he is asked if he needs assistance with dispatching a coyote his dogs have captured, you can hear him saying, “Naw, their eating him!”
Licensed Wisconsin hunters like Nicks do not deserve the privilege to hunt or trap, when it has been documented repeatedly that they commit illegal acts of cruelty on our public lands. Setting one’s dogs on any living animal is illegal and should not be the kind of behavior that is allowed to be used against wolves in Wisconsin, should they ever be successfully stripped of federal protections.
From Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association website.
If you agree, please call the Wisconsin elected officials who are attempting to make the hunting of wolves with hounds in Wisconsin legal again, and tell them you will not tolerate animal abuse disguised as hunting in Wisconsin or anywhere on our public lands.
United States Representative Sean Duffy:
https://duffy.house.gov/contact
United States Senator Ron Johnson:
https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email-the-senator
Wolf Patrol 