News that Daniel resident Cody Roberts has been charged with felony animal cruelty for allegedly capturing and torturing a wolf has left some wondering if the case will have broader effects on Wyoming’s wildlife policies.
There’s concern that the case might open the door to animal cruelty allegations being brought against hunters or ranchers protecting their livestock from predators, Rep. Mike Schmid, R-La Barge, told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.
“It is a concern,” he said. “(What) if I make a bad shot on an elk and it gets away from me, or a deer, or a pronghorn, or anything? If I didn’t make an effective kill, can that be charged as cruelty?”
Deliberate Vs. Accidental
Wyoming Wildlife Advocates Executive Director Kristin Combs told Cowboy State Daily that she thinks such worries are unfounded.
“I understand (the worries), but I think those are very ‘what if’ scenarios that we could say about any law,” she said.
The type of charge that Roberts faces rests on allegations of deliberately making an animal suffer, not accidentally wounding wildlife, she said.
“Most hunters, across the board, will track a wounded animal down and put it out of its misery,” she said. “There’s a very clear-cut distinction between doing something with intent and something being an accident.”
Possible Effect On Agriculture
There is some concern among the agricultural community over what the case could mean for the state’s predator control policy, Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, told Cowboy State Daily.
Farmers and ranchers should retain the right to kill predators attacking their livestock without worrying about cruelty charges, he said.
However, many details of the case against Roberts are unknown because it was drawn up through a confidential grand jury proceeding, Magagna said.
“Once we learn more, we might have more to say about it,” he said.
He noted that the so-called “clean kill bill” passed during the 2025 session of the Wyoming Legislature should address concerns over the cruel treatment of predators.
The bill, signed into law by Gov. Mark Gordon, states that people who wound predators should make every reasonable effort to finish them off quickly and not allow them to suffer.
It also calls for a misdemeanor criminal charge for a first offense, not a felony.
“When this particular incident happened, that law wasn’t in place,” said Magagna, referencing reports that Roberts ran over a wolf with a snowmobile before capturing, tormenting and finally killing it in February 2024.
Even so, “I’m a little bit puzzled why, in light of that, the prosecuting attorney of Sublette County went back and tried to establish a charge that wasn’t consistent with that,” Magagna said.
A Long Time Coming
Even though it took 18 months to bring a felony charge against Roberts, Combs said that she and other wildlife advocates feel vindicated.
“I feel that a little bit more justice has been served in this situation,” Combs said.
While it’s true that Roberts is “innocent until proven guilty,” Combs said she’s thankful that the matter “wasn’t pushed aside and forgotten about.”
Chilling Effect?
During the 2025 legislative session, Schmid introduced an unsuccessful bill calling for a ban on using snowmobiles or other vehicles to run down and run over predators, a practice commonly called “whacking.”
He said he plans to try again during the 2026 session.
“I just don’t believe in using a vehicle to kill or maim an animal, predator or not,” he said.
He said that many people in his area of Wyoming thought the controversy over Cody Roberts and the wolf was behind them.
Having it coming back again through the indictment has angered some, Schmid said. He’s worried that might have a chilling effect on his efforts to ban whacking.
“All the support I was garnering for that bill, I’m afraid I’m going to lose some of that,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
