When pro-wolf activists on the second annual Hogs For Hope ride arrived in Daniel, Wyoming, on Saturday morning, they were greeted by a large banner across the front of the Green River Bar declaring “Cody Roberts Days.”
It was an in-your-face moment for this small town to those protesting Wyoming’s wolf management policies.
Daniel-area resident Roberts has been at the center of a worldwide controversy that exploded over reports that he ran over a wolf with a snowmobile and then captured the animal in February 2024.
He then reportedly kept the wolf alive for hours, taking it first to his home, and then to the Green River Bar to show it off before finally killing it behind the bar.
The group’s run through town for the second time was, by all accounts, quiet and uneventful.
There were about eight motorcycles and perhaps 35 vehicles in the Hogs For Hope caravan, said Kristin Combs, one of the event’s organizers.
The town was mostly empty, except for “15 or 20 people standing on the front porch of the Green River Bar,” added Combs, who is the executive director of Wyoming Wildlife Advocates.
That’s in contrast to the large crowd and raucous nature of the first Hogs For Hope rally May 26, 2024, in which there were harsh words exchanged, but nothing more.
Wyoming hunter Mitch Gilliam told Cowboy State Daily that he was among those gathered on the bar’s porch Saturday.
He previously told Cowboy State Daily that he was planning a counter-demonstration to Hogs For Hope, which is led by Austin, Texas, dog trainer and social media influencer Jonas Black.
Gilliam said he wasn’t sure why the crowd was smaller than he’d expected.
It might have been because some people had chosen to attend “No Kings” rallies that day protesting current immigration policies, he said.
‘Welcome To Cody Roberts Days"
The banner displayed atop the bar read “Welcome to Cody Roberts Days” across the top.
Then, “God Bless America” on the second line and “Supporting LOCAL Ranchers” across the bottom.
It also included images of the Wyoming and United States flags.
Gilliam has voiced support for Roberts, saying that he was demonized by inaccurate accounts of what happened.
However, Gilliam said that he didn’t put the banner on the bar and doesn’t know who did.
“It was already up when I got there,” he said. “I was indifferent about the banner.”
On Tuesday, nobody answered the phone number listed for the Green River Bar.
Black said the sign represented a “doubling down” of opposition to his determination to reform Wyoming’s predator management policy.
“That sign, ‘Cody Roberts Days,’ was probably the dumbest shit they (Black’s opponents) pulled,” Black said.
Death Threats Going Both Ways
He added that he wore a bullet-proof vest while riding his motorcycle through Daniel because of numerous death threats that he’d gotten leading up to this year’s Hogs For Hope rally.
Though much quieter than the 2024 event, Black said this year “was way more crazy, because of the death threats.”
After the Daniel wolf story broke last year, other Wyoming men named Cody Roberts told Cowboy State Daily that they, too, had been getting death threats — prompted by worldwide outrage over the alleged events.
Wyoming’s ‘Bad Reputation’
Black said he plans to keep organizing yearly Hogs For Hope rallies to Daniel, to pay tribute to the slain wolf, which he dubbed “Hope.”
He also plans to keep raising money and pushing for reform to Wyoming’s predator management policy. The practice of running animals down with snowmobiles and other vehicles, commonly called “whacking,” should be banned here, Black said.
This year’s rally raised about $65,000 for litigation to end whacking, he said. Adding that in total, Hogs For Hope has raised about $200,000.
Combs said that failing to ban whacking has tainted Wyoming’s image.
“Wyoming still has this bad reputation in the world right now,” she said.
More Legislation In the Works?
Daniel is in the Wyoming House district of Rep. Mike Schmid, R-La Barge.
He told Cowboy State Daily that he grew up in the Daniel area and “I know the Daniel Valley very well.”
Like Black and his supporters, Schmid wants to see whacking banned in Wyoming.
However, he said he thinks that Black’s “kind of a grifter” and he doesn’t think that Hogs For Hope rallies are really helping the situation.
Schmid added that he doesn’t agree with “attacking Cody Roberts and his family. That’s not going to get this behind us.”
The Legislature this year passed a measure, the “Clean Kill Bill,” making it illegal to deliberately prolong the suffering of a predator instead of killing it as quickly as possible. Gov. Mark Gordon signed the measure into law.
Schmid introduced a bill to also ban whacking, which failed, as did his efforts to attach a whacking ban to the Clean Kill Bill.
But he hasn’t given up, and said he wants to introduce a similar during the Legislature’s 2026 session.
He stressed that any bill he brings would apply only to public land, not ranchers’ private property.
Schmid added that he doesn’t want to ban hunters from using vehicles to locate or get to within shooting distance of predators on public land. He wants to ban only the use of them as “weapons” to run animals over.
Failing to ban whacking in Wyoming “will continue to hurt us down the road, even cost us public access for hunting,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
