Arizona Daily Sun (Original) Letter to the Editor Posted July 3, 2015 by Kay Bordwell
To the editor:
I am dismayed by the recent anti-wolf legislation (HR 2910) introduced into Congress by Representatives Paul Gosar and Steve Pearce -- it is a recipe for wolf extinction. There are only 109 Mexican gray wolves in Arizona and New Mexico where thousands once roamed, not because of any failure of the wolves, but because a government extermination campaign almost wiped them out. Now Gosar and Pearce have made it their mission to drive our native wolves back to extinction.
The science is clear that the Mexican gray wolf is essential to balanced ecosystems and has shown that in places like Yellowstone they have created a healthy ecosystem with their return. It is vital they remain protected by the Endangered Species Act -- losing ESA protections would lead to extinction of the wild lobo.
In a 2008 poll of registered voters, 77 percent of Arizonans and 69 percent of New Mexicans supported "the reintroduction of the Mexican gray wolf into these public lands in Arizona and New Mexico." The fact remains that chances of a dangerous encounter with a wild wolf are remarkably slim compared to the risks associated with everyday dangers. Not a single person has been killed by a Mexican gray wolf – in comparison, each year on average in the U.S., 241 people are killed by tractors, 53 by bees, 39 by lightning, 31 by dog bites and even 22 by cows!
KAY BORDWELL
Flagstaff
