The law that is in place says people can legally run over predators in snowmobiles needs to stop. Unless the wolf is destroying livestock, we shouldn’t be killing them just because they exist.”

Sara Windbigler, Big Piney, Wyo.

Dear Editor,

This is what I wanted to say to the Game and Fish Commission in the allotted two minute timeframe at the April 17 meeting in Riverton, but I never got a chance.

I have lived in Sublette County for 16 years and have seen we lack the desire to be part of the solution and just want to add to the problem.

Words are so powerful because they can destroy or build. I am coming to you as an animal lover, hunter and child of the most high God.

There is always a “why.” When laws are left to moral compass it excludes killers and lost people. When I first moved here the consensus was, “if you see a wolf, kill it.”

As an animal lover, I know that all animals have feelings and intellect beyond what humans understand. When people demonize any animal, they lack that understanding.

I went and spent time with wolves, and these so-called “killers” were sleeping in the middle of a dozing elk herd. Seeing that blew all of the past stories out of the water.

I was raised with a killer. Because what happened to that wolf was at the hands of a killer —someone lacking peace, missing happiness and who is lost.

I married a hunter, someone who only kills what they eat, and who kills the animal as humanely and painlessly as possible.

I am so grateful for guns and bullets because we don’t have to kill with our teeth and hands to survive. Animals are not evil.

You all have a very hard job in the state of Wyoming.

Do we have actual loss of livestock reports in the last year? The last one that I could find was in 2021. That report said wolves killed 38 cattle, 32 sheep and six unspecified livestock.

So the amount of hate is beyond me! Wyoming is not lacking elk.

From what I have seen with my eyes and in the numbers, hunters and predators are not killing enough elk. Even more was confirmed in the April 16-17 Commission meeting.

The law that is in place says people can legally run over predators in snowmobiles needs to stop. Unless the wolf is destroying livestock, we shouldn’t be killing them just because they exist.

I urge you all to be part of the solution not the problem. We need to be living with predators, not killing them just because you see them.

I ask all wolf haters, what could that animal ever do to make it okay to be alive? Or do you just want them all dead because you hate them? Because we are not letting enough disease and old animals die in our elk population specifically CWC and prions are running rampant.

I urge you all to look beyond small, close-minded thinking.

Look around and see how much hate there is!! We do not have enough love and respect for each other let alone animals — please change the laws.

In closing there is always a “why” and the laws need to change!

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Thank you for your time,

Sara Windbigler, Big Piney, Wyo.