A bill has failed that supporters say would’ve lifted the ‘black eye’ left on both Sublette County and Wyoming from a now infamous wolf incident.
It’s been almost a year since a Sublette County man ran down a wolf with a snowmobile and brought the live, injured animal into a local bar, sparking global outrage.
Several Wyoming legislative efforts have been made to try to prevent that behavior. But only one would’ve outlawed the sport of striking predators with a vehicle on public lands: HB 331 known as ‘Taking of predators on public lands.’
Sublette County Representative and Freedom Caucus aligned Mike Schmid (R-La Barge) introduced his bill to fellow lawmakers on the House Agriculture, State and Public Lands & Water Resources committee late last week.
“All it basically does is make it illegal to use a vehicle whether over the road, ATV, side by side, snow machine as a weapon to kill any wildlife, including predators, on public land,” Schmid said.
A key point Schmid emphasized is that the bill wouldn’t impact private lands, accidental striking of wildlife, government agency wildlife management or even pursuit of a predator via vehicle on public lands.
He added that this language could’ve likely prevented the wolf incident from happening last year.
“That issue has given my community a black eye, my county and this state a black eye,” he said. “Let’s let that black eye start to heal because I believe if we don't this isn't going to go away. I really believe this bill protects the landowners and it stops this senseless activity of just using a machine to whack an animal and torture it.”
But not everyone agreed. Livestock groups testified that striking predators with snowmobiles is a management tool, and they had concerns about how this bill could impact them.
Schmid stressed they could still use the practice on private land. However, if the predator moves off private land that’s where there’d be changes. Currently, it’s within a ranchers right to strike the predator on public land, but Schmid said under his bill a rancher “can still pursue that animal but he can't use that machine as a weapon to maim it, injure it or kill it. He has to pursue it and shoot it from the vehicle.”
Another concern with Schmid’s effort is it’s redundant to a similar bill moving forward. HB 275 known as ‘Treatment of animals’, heightens penalties for wildlife cruelty. Like, if a person “knowingly and with intent” kills or causes undue suffering to wildlife through actions such as, “beats with cruelty, tortures, torments or mutilates.”
“I think the actions that would lead up to something being killed is covered by the other bill [HB 275],” said Brett Moline, Wyoming Farm Bureau policy advocacy director. “Before you kill it, if you're going to be chasing it with a vehicle you will be in the harassing and, you know, the intentional items that are in that bill.”
HB 275 doesn’t specifically outlaw running over wildlife with a vehicle though, which was a sticking point for Schmid.
“That one [HB 275] doesn't quite close the door on this problem that was created in Sublette County,” Schmid said. “The intent of the bill [HB 275] is if you do that you have to kill the animal as quickly as possible there's no torture involved.”
Schmid initially tried to edit HB 275 with an amendment version of HB 331, to specifically outlaw the act on public lands. It was shot down on the House floor. HB 331 was Schmid’s last attempt at the outlawing effort.
But, Committee Chairman and Rep. Dalton Banks (R-Cowley) said if they passed Schmid’s bill, “it'll look like you're trying to do what you've already tried and that thing didn't work out at all.”
Schmid’s HB 331 narrowly failed to pass. Schmid left lawmakers with some thoughts on Wyoming’s, and Sublette County’s, ‘black eye’ left by the wolf incident.
“This is not going to go away,” he said, unless the act of using a snowmobile to run a predator over is directly addressed.
The other bill, HB 275, will likely be heard by the Senate in the coming days and weeks. Notably, it’s a heightened penalty version of a similar bill put forth this session by the Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Interim committee. That bill was crafted over the summer months in response to the global outrage from the Sublette County wolf incident. It sought to also increase penalties for animal cruelty, but many argued it didn’t go far enough. That bill was never considered by the legislature’s deadlines.
