Wyoming Legislature wants to know your feelings on predator abuse, but talk fast (2024)

On Wednesday, members of the Wyoming Legislature’s Treatment of Predators Working Group will take public comment on two draft bills intended to address the state’s lack of enforcement capability in cases of abuse of predatory animals.

They’ll likely get an earful, although the public comment will only last 30 minutes, and each speaker is limited to three minutes.

Comments will be taken online via Zoom and in person at the meeting in room PRM1 of the Capitol Extension, which connects the Capitol with the Herschler Building. Those wishing to provide comments can sign up on the working group’s website at https://wyoleg.gov/Committees/2024/S42.

The working group was formed after a man brought a wolf he had run over with a snowmobile into a bar in Daniel, posed for photos with the injured and muzzled animal, and took it behind the bar and shot it.

After the Feb. 29 incident, Cody Roberts, of Daniel, was fined $250 for for illegal possession of a warm-blooded animal.

The episode sparked widespread furor locally and globally. Calls for boycotts caused the state to temporarily suspend tourism promotions.

The first of the draft bills addresses requirements for killing predatory animals. It wouldn’t ban the practice of using vehicles to run down predators. Instead, it states, “any person who intentionally injures or disables a predatory animal by use of an automotive vehicle, motor-propelled wheeled vehicle, or vehicle designed for travel over snow shall upon inflicting the injury or disability immediately use all reasonable efforts to kill the injured or disabled predatory animal.”

The second draft bill would add the wording, “any person who fails to immediately use all reasonable efforts to kill an injured or disabled predatory animal as required by this subsection commits cruelty to animals.”

It would also increase the maximum penalty for cruelty to animals from $750 to $1,000.

Wyoming law considers wolves to be trophy game animals in the northwest part of the state outside national parks and the Wind River Reservation and regulates hunting of wolves in those areas. In the other 85% of the state, it considers them predators that can be hunted at any time without a license, and animal cruelty statutes don’t apply to predators.

A live video stream of the meeting will be available on the Legislature’s website, www.wyoleg.gov.

The website states, “The total amount of time dedicated to virtual public comment is set by the Working Group Chairmen [sic] per Management Council Policy. Please fill out the public comment form to ensure the Working Group knows you intend to provide public comment virtually. Only those that fill out the form to provide public comments virtually and who are e-mailed the Zoom invite from the Legislative Service Office will be permitted into the Zoom meeting to testify. The deadline for members of the public requesting to provide live testimony will be 5 p.m. of the day immediately preceding the day on which the topic is noticed to be discussed by the working group.”

“At the chairman’s discretion, testimony may be accepted after this deadline if it is in the best interest of the work of the working group.”

Individuals who plan to provide materials to the committee during the meeting should provide the materials in electronic format to committee staff and provide sufficient hard copies for members of the committee, committee staff and interested members of the audience. Hard copies should be on three hole paper.

Written comments will be accepted before the meeting.

All materials provided to the committee in written form will be part of the official record of the committee’s meeting and will be on file at the Legislative Service Office.

Members of the Treatment of Predators Working Group include State Senators Fred Baldwin, R-Kemmerer, and Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, and Representatives Sandy Newsome, R-Cody; Liz Storer, D-Jackson; and John Winter, R-Thermopolis.

Additional members include Wyoming Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik, Wyoming Department of Agriculture Director Doug Miyamoto, Wyoming Wildlife Federation Advocacy Coordinator Jess Johnson, and Wyoming Stock Growers Association Executive Vice President Jim Magagna.