Wyoming Legislators Stop Short Of Banning Running Over Wolves With Snowmobiles

CHEYENNE — Allowing people to run over wolves and other predators with snowmobiles makes Wyoming look barbaric, protesters of the practice told state legislators Monday at the Capitol.

Even so, the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee voted to forward a bill will allow that to continue. However, the bill would stiffen the punishment for those who don’t immediately kill predators after hitting them with vehicles.

Ripple Effect Of Daniel Wolf Incident

The bill, and the objections against it, are the latest in the continuing ripple effects of the reported capture, torture and killing of a wolf in Daniel, Wyoming in February.

According to accounts of events, Daniel resident Cody Roberts ran a wolf down with a snowmobile and captured the injured animal. He took it to his house and then showed it off at the Green River Bar in Daniel before finally taking it behind the bar and killing it.

Roberts forfeited a $250 bond on a citation issued by a Wyoming Game and Fish warden for illegal possession of a live warm-blooded animal, according to court records.

The proposed bill discussed Monday was drafted largely by the Treatment of Predators Working Group that Gov. Mark Gordon tasked with addressing the Daniel wolf and other predator issues. The group passed the proposed legislation along to the committee Monday.

The World Is Watching

Before voting unanimously to forward the bill to the full Wyoming Legislature for consideration during its 2025 session, the committee listened to about 30 minutes of public comment — most of it angry from people arguing the bill doesn’t go far enough.

The Daniel incident put Wyoming in the international spotlight — not in a good way — and the bill is too weak of a response, said Kristin Combs with Wyoming Wildlife Advocates.

“Cody Roberts has become the face of wildlife management here,” she said.

Wyoming’s legacy could be “the state that legalizes running down animals with snowmobiles,” she added.

Testifying over Zoom, Wyoming resident Glenda Meyer echoed the sentiments of many that pursuing predators with vehicles should just be banned outright.

“This bill should read: “Do not run over anything in any way for any reason,” she said.

The term “humane,” which was taken out of the draft bill during a meeting of the working group, should be put back in, Sublette County resident Paul Ulrich told the Committee.

Wyoming statute should call for any wildlife to be killed in a quick and humane manner, he said, adding that wildlife is a public trust.

“We are the trustees (of wildlife). We are not owners. We are trustees,” he said. “I can’t rectify that philosophy and that doctrine with the current language in the statute.

Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, and Brett Moline of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Association told the committee that their organizations support the bill as written.

Magagna was a member of Treatment of Predators Working Group.

Second Trip To Wyoming To Protest

Concerns were also raised over how a failure to ban running predators down with vehicles could affect Wyoming’s tourism industry.

Banning it should be a “no-brainer,” South Carolina resident Lorraine Finazzo told the committee, who made her second cross-country trip to Wyoming to admonish state officials in person.

“Now, it (running predators down) seems to have been normalized as a tool for managing predators, and even a form of family entertainment,” said Finazzo.

She made similar objections before the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission during its April meeting in Riverton.

At that meeting, she said that she and her family have for many years loved coming to Wyoming, but they won’t again as tourists unless and until Wyoming revises its policy toward wolves. She told the legislative committee the same thing Monday.

She also told Cowboy State Daily that she and her family will probably not return to object to the bill during the 2025 Legislative session.

Testifying over Zoom, Rob Harris of Evanston said running wolves, coyotes and other animals down ruins Wyoming’s reputation.

“People come to our state and contribute to our economy to see wild animals such as wolves and coyotes,” he said. “We’ve closed our eyes to this violence for too long. Please don’t allow this to continue.”

Higher Fines, Loss Of Hunting Privileges

If the bill passes and is signed into law, penalties could include up to six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine, plus losing hunting and fishing privileges for up to three years for anybody who runs a predatory animal down and allows it to suffer afterward.

The fines and jail time could come from allowing game wardens to apply Wyoming’s cruelty to animals statues in the specific instance of somebody striking a predatory animal with a vehicle and allowing it to suffer.

That amendment was recommended by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, brought the amendment giving judges discretion to pull a violator’s hunting and fishing privileges.

The threat of losing those privileges should serve as a strong deterrent to deliberately letting an animal suffer, said Rep. John Winter, R-Thermopolis.

“I think this may be really good deterrent toward any action like what was done last winter (in Daniel),” he said.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.