Yesterday, on the eve of the opening day of the hound hunt for bear in Wisconsin, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke issued a broad federal order directing Department officials to review policies on DoI lands that are restrictive to hunting and trapping.

In his September 10, 2018 order, Zinke directs DoI agencies, like the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, to make federal lands more open to hound hunting, bear baiting and trapping. Under current law, such hunting practices like bear baiting are prohibited on USFWS lands.

Wolf Patrol is continuing to call on all recreational users of national forest lands to take a stand against these abusive hunting practices in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest (CNNF) of northern Wisconsin.

Feeding wild bears and hunting and training hounds to chase and kill bears should no longer be allowed in the CNNF, where it is causing deadly conflicts between bear hunting dogs and federally protected wolves every year, not to mention conditioning wildlife into being fed by humans.

So far in 2018, there have been 15 reports of violent clashes between wolves and hunting dogs in Wisconsin, leaving ten dogs dead and 13 injured. Since Wisconsin’s bear hound training and bear baiting season began, Wolf Patrol has documented extensive baiting and hounding practices continuing in areas where bear hounds have already been killed, lending to even more deadly conflicts.

Little can be done for the over 4,500 black bears slated to be killed this year in Wisconsin with the aid of hounds and bait. But you can send your email today asking US Forest officials to restrict these practices on our national forest lands in the future!

Only you can end bear hunting abuses in our national forests!

EMAIL US FOREST OFFICIALS:

cnnfadmin@fs.fed.us

SECRETARY ZINKE’S SEPTEMBER 10, 2018 ORDER: