Howl for Justice for Tortured Wyoming Wolf

Earlier this year, a horrific scene of torment and death unfolded in Daniel, Wyoming. According to multiple news reports and videos posted online, over the span of hours, a man named Cody Roberts terrorized a young female wolf by relentlessly chasing her with a snowmobile and running her over with the machine, resulting in such grievous injuries that she struggled to maintain consciousness. This man then taped her mouth shut, transported her crippled body to his home and then to a bar, where he paraded her around, holding her sagging torso and drooping head up for photos while he smiled and laughed. Finally, he dragged her outside and killed her.

We can only imagine her sheer terror as she battled exhaustion, desperately and futilely attempting to outrun a machine capable of speeds of over 100 mph; her all-consuming agony as the snowmobile pummeled her body, likely inflicting deep wounds, broken bones, and internal bleeding; her confusion and misery as Roberts subjected her to hours of heartless ridicule and further pain; her fear and hopelessness in her final moments before she was brutally killed. 

We lament the life she should have had, and the family she left behind. She should have spent that day, and all her days to come, playing with her family, roaming her territory, hunting with her pack, and, when she matured, possibly finding a mate and becoming a mother. That day, her pack lost a daughter, a sister, an aunt. Perhaps they witnessed what happened to her, helpless and unable to save her. Perhaps they will never know what happened to her, their searching howls returned only with silence. Inevitably, her pack will suffer without her, as all members of this highly social species have an important role to play in ensuring the health and safety of their family. 

Roberts tortured and killed this young wolf for no reason beyond his own perverted amusement, and because he could. Local prosecutors declined to bring cruelty charges, citing inapplicability of the state’s anti-cruelty statute. In the end, Roberts received a mere $250 fine for illegally possessing warm-blooded wildlife. 

Although state officials condemned Roberts’s actions, Wyoming’s management of gray wolves has perpetuated such sickening practices. Across 85 percent of Wyoming, wolves can be killed in virtually unlimited numbers by virtually unrestricted methods, including with vehicles, helicopters, strangling snares, and bone-crushing steel-jaw leghold traps. 

Please honor this young wolf’s memory, and the lives of all wolves at risk of a similar fate, by taking the following actions:

• Contact the Wyoming Governor’s Office (307-777-7434; sara.dirienzo1@wyo.gov) and the Wyoming Legislature’s Agriculture Committee and its Travel, Recreation, and Wildlife Committee via the Wyoming Legislative Service Office (307-777-7881): Request a ban on snowmobiles and vehicles as a hunting method, humane management of gray wolves, and stronger anti-cruelty statutes that cover predatory animal abuse. 
• Contact the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (307-777-4600): Urge support for a ban on snowmobiles and vehicles as a hunting method and for humane management of gray wolves. 
• Contact the Wyoming Tourism Office (307-777-7777; tourism@wyo.gov): Inform them how this incident and gray wolf management policies negatively impact your plans to visit and spend money in the state.

Thank you for helping create a better future for Wyoming’s wolves. 

Q article single.

Program Terms: Terrestrial Wildlife

AWI Quarterly Terms: Feature Article, Government/Legal