Question 1.) Do you support the current law which allows for recreational hunting of wolves in Minnesota at the discretion of the DNR? (Background: A wolf hunting and trapping season remains in Minnesota state law and allows the MN Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to authorize a wolf hunting and trapping season when federal Endangered Species Act protections are removed for the wolf. Wolves are currently killed while they are federally protected in Minnesota for conflicts with livestock and pets. Studies confirm legal wolf killing comes more illegal wolf killing. And illegal killing dramatically increased and persisted following public wolf hunts.)

Question 2.) Do you support a ban on public wolf hunting and trapping in Minnesota? (Background: There is no scientific or ethical basis for a wolf hunt. Wolves are a large apex predator that control their reproduction with social structure of intact packs that protect their territories. A wolf hunt creates chaos for the wolf and unpredictable effects including younger wolves having pups without the support of a pack and thus more livestock conflicts.)

Question 3.) Do you support trapping reforms to eliminate snaring - a type of trapping that uses cheap wire nooses to catch animals? (Background: Snares kill non-targeted animals, including dogs, pheasants, wolves, moose, lynx, and songbirds. They are meant to choke the animal to death, but often grab other body parts creating amputations, disembowelment, and fatal disabilities (like brain swelling). Twenty (20) states have effectively eliminated the recreational use of snares because it is a non-targeted and cruel method of killing wild animals.)

Question 4.) Do you support requiring permission to trap on private property? (Background: Howling For Wolves seeks to have Minnesota join 22 other states that support private property owners and have stronger requirements to obtain permission from a landowner to set traps on someone’s private property. Current Minnesota law allows trappers to set traps on private property without the landowner’s permission, unless it is agricultural land or adequately posted and followed that trespass is prohibited. Wisconsin has required written landowner permission to hunt/trap since 1995.)

Question 5.) Do you support renewing adequate state funding to help farmers, wolves, and communities coexist by supporting smart and nonlethal strategies that prevent conflicts? (Background: Reducing predation on livestock and supporting farmers/ranchers is a shared goal of Howling For Wolves with the agriculture community. Nonlethal methods are currently available in limited supply by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture — such as the use of guard animals, fladery (waving flags on electric wire), fences, lights, & carcass removal.)

FINAL: Please feel free to provide any additional comments relating to your responses above.