Editor's note Aug. 20, 2025: This is a developing story and will be updated if more details are made available.
The Sublette County man that allegedly ran down a wolf with a snowmobile last year and took the live, muzzled animal to a bar for hours, has been charged with felony animal cruelty.
The decision was left in the hands of a local grand jury who convened this month, according to a Sublette County Attorney’s Office Aug. 20 press release.
“Following receiving evidence and deliberation, the Grand Jury returned a ‘True Bill’ resulting in an Indictment against Cody Roberts for the charge of FELONY CRUELTY TO ANIMALS, a felony is in violation of Wyoming Statute § 6-3- 1005(a)(ii)(2024), punishable by up to two (2) years in prison, a fine of $5,000, or both,” according to the release.
The news broke via the Pinedale Roundup, the county’s local newspaper.
“Pretty big news,” said editor Cali O’Hare. “This has been 18 months in the making and a lot of folks both locally and around the world really didn’t think that this would happen.”
Roberts was fined several days after the Feb. 2024 incident by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD). He paid a $250 fine for possession of live wildlife, although WyoFile reported further charges could’ve been made.
Other than town chatter, news of the incident remained relatively quiet for the next month. Then, footage surfaced of Roberts bringing the live wolf into the local Green River Bar. In one video, one can see the animal lying on the barroom floor as Roberts attempted to kiss it on the snout. Patrons talking in the background. This spread like wildfire on social media, causing global outrage at Roberts actions and what many felt was a minimal fine.
Many threatened to boycott Wyoming if further charges weren’t made or state law wasn’t changed to try to prevent that behavior from repeating. Thousands of angry social media comments were left on Wyoming and Sublette County related social media pages. The Wyoming Office of Tourism page went dark for about a month. Businesses in Sublette County, those attached to the incident and even those who happened to share the same name as Roberts received death threats from across the world.
In response, the Wyoming legislature passed a bill that upped penalties for cruelty to animals. Had this law been in place when Roberts walked into that bar, he could've been fined up to $5,000 and potentially lost his hunting license. It went into effect July 1, so it won’t apply in this incident. The new law doesn’t outlaw running over predators with a snowmobile, which is currently legal. One lawmaker said until it’s made illegal Wyoming will still have a “black eye.”
Now that Roberts has been indicted, proceedings will move forward just like any other criminal charge, according to O’Hare’s reporting. The next order of business will be a summons where a judge usually sets the defendant’s bond and an arraignment where Roberts will have an opportunity to enter his plea. The date has not been set.
More typically, criminal charges are made directly by a county attorney. However, in this instance the tool of a grand jury was used, which is like a pre-trial that’s meant to be secret. The 12 jurors are tasked with determining whether there’s enough evidence for the county attorney to move forward with actual charges. Those in the legal world say the advantages of the grand jury are that it can protect witnesses and the reputation of the defendant in the case they are not actually charged. However, some say the legal tool is concerning in that it doesn’t involve the defendant or their legal team.
O’Hare said she heard rumblings the grand jury was convening the last couple weeks.
“The secrecy of the grand jury proceedings sort of makes sense,” she said. “In this instance, we had a lot of witnesses who did not want to speak publicly for fear of their lives, for their family, for their jobs.”
While O’Hare didn’t break the story about the actual incident in 2024, Jackson’s KHOL did she was eager to be the first for the grand jury decision. Largely because she was out of work just two weeks ago.
“So two weeks ago, our former company closed our newspaper and said that we were done forever,” O’Hare said. “So to be able to break this news for Sublette county residents, knowing how much they have wanted this, knowing how much this decision has been anticipated, it's really a source of pride for me as the editor of our paper, serving our community.”
The eight Wyoming newspapers were bought out by several Wyoming-based publishers who formed 307 Media LLC, with the deal being official Aug. 20.
O’Hare said the paper is up and running and she will continue coverage on local happenings, including the Roberts case.
Wyoming Public Media (WPM) reached out to the Sublette County Attorney’s office, which provided the press release but was not available for additional comment. Additionally, WPM has contacted the Roberts family numerous times, including on Aug. 20, and hasn’t received comment. To this day, Roberts has not told his side of the story publicly in an official capacity.
