Wolf advocates are offering a $10,000 reward for the the identity of any hunter shooting a member of a famed Yellowstone National Park wolf pack that recently denned outside of the park in Wyoming.
Social-media influencer Jonas Black of Austin, Texas, told Cowboy State Daily during a telephone interview Wednesday that posting the reward is necessary to protect the Mollie’s Pack, particularly 12-year-old Wolf 1090 F.
Those wolves have spent most of their lives in Yellowstone and aren’t afraid of people, so there’s no way it could be a “fair-chase” hunt, Black said.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Angi Bruce denounced the move in a text message Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily.
Wyoming, Montana and Idaho have laws keeping wolf hunters’ identities confidential to shield them from doxing, harassment and stalking.
“Putting an animal before the welfare of a person is outrageous,” Bruce said. “This is the exact reason our legislators put this statute in place – to prevent harassment of our hunters.”
‘Snitch Gets Ten Grand’
Black announced in a social media post that he and others are offering the reward if any of the Mollie’s wolves are shot during the season, set to begin Sept. 15.
“Anybody harvests one of these wolves during Wyoming’s wolf season and somebody snitches? That snitch gets ten grand cash,” Black wrote.
During the interview, Black said the intent is specifically to protect the Mollie’s, not to undermine the states’ statutes protecting wolf hunters’ identities.
The Mollie’s this summer denned and are raising pups on the Shoshone National Forest.
During its 30-plus year history, the pack has spent nearly all of its time inside Yellowstone, where hunting is forbidden.
So, the wolves are essentially like “zoo-type animals” insofar as having little fear of humans, Black said.
Black said he isn’t anti-hunting and supports fair-chase hunting, when animals are actively trying to evade humans.
“I’m not going to interfere or try to interfere with state laws. But with this pack, it’s like shooting a dog. Man, it’s unreal,” Black said.
‘I’m Going To Burn Your House Down’
Wyoming Statute § 23-1-304(d)(vi) protects the anonymity of wolf hunters. Under the statute, Game and Fish may not release any private or confidential information regarding legal wolf harvests, and that information is not a matter of public record.
Montana and Idaho also have statutes that keep wolf hunters’ identities confidential.
That wouldn’t stop private individuals from revealing that information to other private parties, though.
Those statutes are there for good reason, said Randy Newberg, a prominent outdoorsman and hunting content creator from Bozeman, Montana.
Newberg featured a successful wolf hunt in an episode on his Fresh Tracks YouTube channel.
He told Cowboy State Daily the blowback was vicious.
“People from all over the world were emailing me with crazy stuff. ‘I’m going to burn your house down. I’m going to kill your dogs.’ Wow,” he said.
Newberg noted that as a prominent figure in the hunting world, “I live in a fishbowl,” and so he expected the pushback.
But rank-and-file hunters should be spared that sort of harassment if they shoot any of the Mollie’s, Newberg said.
“If their information got out there, I can assure you, that person is going to undergo a level of threat and intimidation that’s completely out of line,” he said.
Condemnation As A Deterrent
Black said the possibility of facing worldwide condemnation should deter anyone from even trying to hunt the Mollie’s.
It could be similar to the global shame heaped upon the American hunter who went to Africa and killed the beloved “Cecil the Lion,” he said.
And that’s the point of offering the reward he said.
Black is a dog trainer who became an outspoken wolf advocate in the wake of the capture, torture and killing of a wolf by Daniel resident Cody Roberts in February 2024.
Black has stated that his efforts, along with Wolf and Wildlife Advocates president Kim Bean and others, were instrumental in a felony animal cruelty charge being brought against Roberts, to which he pleaded guilty.
In April, a judge sentenced Roberts to a possible 18- to 24-month prison term if he fails probation.
Black said that with the Mollie’s his beef isn’t with Game and Fish.
“This has nothing to do with Game and Fish,” he said. "I think Game and Fish is doing a great job with the Mollie’s.”
Wolf & Wildlife Advocates’ Bean said Game and Fish, along with a rancher in the pack’s denning area, have been trying to coax the pack back into the park.
Game and Fish has kept the Mollie’s location confidential.
However, some people have discovered the pack’s location and posted it on social media, “putting a bull's-eye on the pack,” Bean said.
Black said some of those who have revealed the pack’s alleged location are supposedly wolf advocates.
Publicizing the pack’s location is f***ing stupid,” he said.
‘Fair Game’
Montana outdoorsman and retired game warden Jeff Darrah told Cowboy State Daily he supports the statutes shielding wolf hunters’ identities.
“There is a concerted effort by some of these eco-terrorists to find those hunters,” said Darrah, executive director of Montana Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife.
He acknowledged that emotions can run high when it comes to famous Yellowstone wolves such as the Mollie’s Pack.
But when they pass outside the park’s boundaries “they become not a park wolf anymore but a Wyoming wolf. And they’re fair game,” he said.
To mitigate the loss of Yellowstone wolves, Montana reduced the hunting quota to three wolves in each of the two hunt districts immediately north of the park, Darrah said.
“At one time, the quota there was up around 20 wolves,” he said.
‘Asshats’
Newberg said it’s “very disturbing to me” that advocates are trying to work their way around state laws meant to protect the anonymity of people engaged in a legal activity.
“How do we pick and choose?” he said of which legal activities should be protected.
Newberg added that trying to expose hunters who might happen to shoot Mollie’s wolves could undermine the advocates’ cause.
Bean said she, Black and others have hardened their stance only because of the hardened anti-wolf stance against the Mollie’s.
There have been “hundreds” of people bragging about deliberately trying to find and kill the pack, she said.
“They’re threatening to kill the pack, and we’re threatening to expose them,” Bean said. “This isn’t about anonymity, this is about a bunch of asshats out there” threatening the Mollie’s Pack.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
