“We’ll Be Quiet No More!!!”

Editor’s note: The following appeared as an editorial in “The Outdoorsman”, Bulletin 28 of the May 2008 issue. With permission from the editor of that magazine, I reprint it here.

The editorial is accompanied by two graphic photographs of which I have chosen to include at the end of the text of the editorial simply because of the graphic nature. Consider this a warning to readers that what we all love to call “nature” can be cruel and visually upsetting. On the same token, it is reality, something of which is all too often absent from debate in dealing with wildlife management.

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May 22, 2008 email to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and F&G Commissioners Fred Trevey, Wayne Wright and Randall Budge, with copies to Governor Butch Otter and Tony Mayer.

We’ll Be Quiet No More!!!!!!
by Lowell Rosanbalm

As a 65 year old long-time Idaho outdoorsman, I am sick and tired of what your department and the Idaho State government has permitted the USF&W to shove down our throats, wolves!

Last Saturday, May 17, 2008, my wife and I drove to Livingston Mine on the East Fork of the Salmon River. While in the area, we came upon a pathetic scene (see attached photos), where wolves had pulled down a doe and pulled her two fetuses from her womb. Clearly the fawns were within hours of being born. This was approximately 18 miles up from Hwy 75.

The sickening photos pretty much speak for themselves. As we headed back down the road (approx. 3:30p) only about a mile from the crime scene, a truck was coming up the road with the dust just a boiling. What do ya know, it was a F & G truck. Whoever it was, he’s sure to remember my red Dodge, with a red camper shell on it, with the license plate TMBRLNE. My guess is he was headed up there ASAP to remove the evidence. Wouldn’t want Zimo to see or hear about that. He may anyways.

I only have three hero’s. They are Charleston Heston, John Wayne and Ron Gillett, in that order. They would all three know what to do with wolves. It’s high-time you quit pandering to the likes of Ed Bangs, Suzanne Stone, and all the other phony ‘tree-huggers’. Get off this damned ‘Political Correctness’ and start taking care of our herds.

I guess I would like to think that the ‘new’ wolf hunting season is a start to eradicating wolves completely, but I have NO confidence in IDF&G of that happening. Wouldn’t want to piss anybody off.

You’ve seen the bumper stickers that read ‘Save 100 Elk, Kill a Wolf’. Well the new bumper stickers are going to read ‘Gut Shoot A Wolf’.

Get rid of these sport-killing vicious killers. You can see in the pictures that they ate nothing more than two
(very young) hearts and none of the doe. How many more are there laying out there, just out of view and behind the roads?

You can call me one of the many ‘Quiet Majority’. Well, I’ll be quiet no more!!!!!!!!!!

Lowell Rosanbalm
Boise, Idaho

PS: I would have liked to send this message to ALL F & G Commissioners, but only three had guts enough to list their email address. At least, I commend those three.

A note from the editor of The Outdoorsman:

(NOTE: Each week I receive about a hundred emails from knowledgeable outdoorsmen who express similar anger or frustration at Idaho Fish and Game’s failure to protect and perpetuate our valuable wild game resource. Most of these people indicate they do not attend F&G hearings or participate in surveys, yet believe they represent the opinion of the majority of license buyers who pay IDFG millions of dollars annually to support responsible resource management. In my opinion that silent majority are not getting what they pay for.

Mr. Rosanbalm’s letter and photographs are being widely circulated on the internet. Like the recent Outdoor Life photos of a whitetail doe being slowly eaten by a wolf while still alive, they provide a graphic look at reality. - ED)

Tom Remington