Governor Greg Gianforte of Montana violated a state hunting
requirement last month when he trapped and killed a wolf near Yellowstone
National Park without first taking a mandated trapper education course, state
officials said Tuesday.
اضافة اعلان
Gianforte, who has a license to hunt wolves, received a
written warning for the violation, according to Greg Lemon, a spokesperson for
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “We’ve treated this as we would anybody” in a
similar situation, he said. “It’s important to us the integrity of our process,
no matter who we’re dealing with, is maintained.”
Gianforte trapped and shot an adult black wolf on February
15 near Yellowstone National Park, Boise State Public Radio reported Tuesday.
Morgan Warthin, spokesperson for Yellowstone National Park, said the wolf, No.
1155, was born in the park, was estimated to be 6 or 7 years old and had been
collared by park biologists in 2018.
“Once the wolf left the park, it no longer was considered a
Yellowstone wolf,” she said.
Montana regulations require that wolf traps be checked at
least once every 48 hours, that wolves harvested be reported within 24 hours
and that the skull and hides be inspected within 10 days of being killed, Lemon
said. Referring to the governor, Lemon said, “Everything had been done the way
it was supposed to,” except for completing the wolf-trapper certification
class.
Telephone messages left with Gianforte’s staff Tuesday were
not immediately returned. Brooke Stroyke, a spokesperson for Gianforte, told
The Associated Press that the governor had “immediately rectified the mistake.”
Gianforte signed up for the first available course, scheduled for Wednesday,
Lemon said.
Stroyke told AP that this was the first wolf the governor
had killed.
The one-time certification class, which lasts about three
hours, teaches trappers about wolf biology, best practices for trapping and
related regulations, Lemon said. “The class is geared toward the ethical
harvest of wolves.”
The episode came as Gianforte is expected to receive, and
support, several bills aimed at loosening wolf hunting and trapping
regulations, including allowing the use of neck snares and offsetting certain
costs for trappers.
Critics have urged Gianforte not to loosen the state’s wolf
hunting and trapping regulations.
“The use of neck snares for wolves is particularly cruel,”
Kitty Block, president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United
States, wrote on her blog last month. “Wolves have extremely well-muscled necks
and suffer greatly when trapped in these devices.”
On Tuesday, referring to the governor’s wolf trapping
episode, Block wrote, “Governor Greg Gianforte should have known better.”
Gianforte, a Republican former congressman, was elected
governor in November, with the support of the Montana Trappers Association.
“Trapping is part of our Montana way of life,” Gianforte
said at the time, News Talk KGVO reported. “Make no mistake, the effort to stop
trapping in Montana is an attack on our heritage,” he said.
This was not Gianforte’s first brush with hunting
regulators. In 2000, Gianforte illegally killed an elk and was issued a $70 ticket
by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Lemon said.
In June 2017, Gianforte was sentenced to 40 hours of
community service and 20 hours of anger management classes for assaulting a
reporter the night before he won a seat in the House of Representatives.
.jpg)
.jpg)
