Wolf Torture Suspect Finally Indicted

A Wyoming man has been indicted by a grand jury on a state felony animal cruelty charge for torturing a young gray wolf. In February 2024, Cody Roberts allegedly ran the wolf over with a snowmobile, taped his mouth shut, paraded his listless body around a bar, and posed for photos—laughing and kissing his snout before shooting him. (The wolf—identified as female in some early reports—is referred to as male in the indictment.)

The horrific incident in the small, rural town of Daniel, Wyoming, sparked outrage across the country from hunters and animal welfare advocates alike. Still, the state Game and Fish Department chose to fine Roberts a mere $250 for illegally possessing warm-blooded wildlife. The county attorney’s office launched an investigation, however, which led a grand jury to indict Roberts in August 2025. He was arraigned in November and faces up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Earlier this year, Wyoming enacted a new law to prohibit the torture of wildlife, and to require that people who injure a wild animal while pursuing them in a vehicle immediately kill that animal. While this is a first step, it does not go far enough. Currently, across 85 percent of the state, gray wolves can be killed in unlimited numbers, at any time of year, by almost any method, including with vehicles, helicopters, strangling snares, and bone-crushing steel-jaw leghold traps. AWI advocates restoration of gray wolf protections in places like Wyoming, where they have been stripped away, as well as a ban on the use of snowmobiles and other vehicles to run down and kill wildlife.

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