Gray wolf sparks debate between hunters, advocates

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/18/MN011N74PT.DTL


Allen Daniels / Associated Press
This November photo from a trail camera shows OR7, the young gray wolf that has wandered away from his pack in Oregon and into Northern California.

The return of a gray wolf to California after nearly a century has thrust the state into an emotional and political debate as old as Little Red Riding Hood.

The lone male wolf known as OR7 has created a sensation, and everyone from schoolchildren to nursing home residents is eagerly following the animal's progress.

But while Californians are throwing out the welcome mat, folks in other states are loading their rifles.

Last week, a photograph of an Idaho hunter proudly lifting the limp body of OR7's brother by the bloody scruff of his radio-collared neck circulated around the Internet. The wolf, named OR9, was one of 266 wolves that were shot or trapped in Idaho this season, a toll the Idaho Department of Fish and Game has suggested might not be high enough.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter seemed almost giddy about the killing of OR9, which, like his brother, had left his Oregon pack. The shooting was illegal because the hunter's wolf-hunting license had expired.



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