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Once again, the trophy hunters and their politician friends are manufacturing controversy and hysteria about our native wolves.

Credible scientists attest wolves keep balance in nature. Just 5,000 wolves survive in the lower 48 states, occupying about 5 percent of their historic range. According to the Aug. 25 State Journal article "Wolf attacks on cattle, dogs on the rise," about 900 wolves remain in Wisconsin.

It’s hard to believe elected leaders would invoke the tired, fairy-tale caricature of the “bloodthirsty wolf.” It’s wrong to scare people to appease a small minority of trophy hunters who want to kill wolves for their hides and heads. Before the court enforced endangered species laws, Wisconsin was letting trophy hunters use extremely unsporting methods to kill our wolves, including painful traps, snares and packs of dogs. This is both barbaric and unnecessary. Bear hunters who complain about wolves killing their hunting hounds are training those hounds in the areas where the Department of Natural Resources has warned wolves are raising pups.