Wolves for example are a vector of rabies, hydatid disease and other diseases that can cause “bodily harm” – even death. The whole measure of the law is your “good faith belief”. If you’re building fence and see a wolf or grizzly within a short distance of a cow (and so am you), there is no way on earth you could outrun either the cow or the wolf. You could shoot – and under the Act would be justified.
Introduction by Editor
Language in the Endangered Species Act does not prohibit killing certain endangered species if a person believes there is a threat to property or life by such a protected animal or group of animals. Wolves have been introduced into settled landscapes throughout North America for several decades, for the purported purpose of saving them from extinction. Although wolf numbers were drastically reduced over two centuries with hunting, trapping, poisoning and other population control methods, it’s still debatable whether or not the highly-prolific, highly-adaptable canids were ever actually endangered as a species.
In 2020, with left-wing activists in state and local governments advocating for more wolves in settled landscapes–not to save the species but to drive ranchers and livestock off the land–wolf populations in Canada, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico and throughout the Midwest are exploding. Some states still allow hunting and trapping of the dangerous predators, and others wrangle in court on a near-constant basis over whether or not ranchers, farmers and other private citizens can protect their animals and families from wolves.
Ironically, as is illustrated in the RANGE magazine article from Spring of 2019, The Destruction of Nature, the reintroduction of wolves is not saving them from extinction, but is transforming the true, genetically pure wolf into a genetically hybridized population of degraded, disease-carrying dog-coyote-wolf mongrels.
Nevertheless, as Dr. Angus McIntosh explains below, the Endangered Species Act provides for the rights of anyone who feels threatened with bodily harm by any version of “wolf” to protect themselves, and their property with the use of deadly force.
Explanation by Angus McIntosh
The 1978 amendment to ESA states you can kill an endangered species animal if you have a “good faith belief” that it could cause bodily harm to a person (including yourself). It doesn’t specify that the bodily harm must be a physical attack.
Wolves for example are a vector of rabies, hydatid disease and other diseases that can cause “bodily harm” – even death. The whole measure of the law is your “good faith belief”. If you’re building fence and see a wolf or grizzly within a short distance of a cow (and so am you), there is no way on earth you could outrun either the cow or the wolf. You could shoot – and under the Act would be justified.
Notably the provision does NOT specify how one can kill the offending animal.
See the text below
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