When the Great Alaskan Huntress lost her bid to become one creaky heartbeat away from the presidency, she who relishes shooting her prey with high-powered rifles from helicopters, the way nature intended, the wolves of America must have thought they literally and, well, literally, dodged a bullet.
But, as I’m sure you figured out from my metaphoric title, which planted in your brain the weird image of Sarah Palin dressed in President Obama’s clothes, so I apologize for that, it turns out that just because Obama won the election and moved quickly to reverse many of the Bush Administration’s devastating policies towards America’s wildlife, it doesn’t actually make much difference to you if you’re a dead wolf.
And there could be more than a thousand of them, soon, thanks to new Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s decision not to reverse the delisting of wolves from the endangered species list. Just as numerous environmental charities were contemplating cutting the hours of their “email guy” who’s been spending all day on Hulu lately, Mr. Salazar generously supplied them with a whole new reason to send out email blitzes. More than a thousand wolves in Idaho and Montana could be slaughtered as soon as the rule takes effect, and Defenders of Wildlife, NRDC and Earthjustice are pressuring the administration to change its mind. While scientists believe a population of 2-3000 wolves is necessary to sustain itself, this rule could leave us with less than 300. If you want to help, you can contribute to the cause: