Somewhere on a remote mountainside in Colorado’s Rockies, a latch flipped on a crate and a wolf bounded out, heading toward the tree line. Then it stopped short.

For a moment, the young female looked back at its audience of roughly 45 people who stared on in reverential silence. Then she disappeared into the forest.

She was one of five gray wolves wildlife officials released in a remote part of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains on Monday to kick off a voter-approved reintroduction program that was embraced in the state’s mostly Democratic urban corridor but staunchly opposed in conservative rural areas where ranchers worry about attacks on livestock.

It marked the start of the most ambitious wolf reintroduction effort in the U.S. in almost three decades and a sharp departure from aggressive efforts by Republican-led states to cull wolf packs. A judge on Friday night had denied a request from the state’s cattle industry for a temporary delay to the release.

  • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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    7 months ago

    I can’t help but laugh because apparently Democrats have voted to release large predators into the parts of the state where Republicans live.

    • Jaderick@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Edit: I was wrong about ranchers getting a lot of subsidies, it’s the crop farmers that receive a disproportionate amount of subsidies.

      https://thecowdocs.wordpress.com/2017/02/28/do-cattle-ranchers-and-farmers-get-government-subsidies/

      Be prepared to see a lot of trash people claiming wolves killed their livestock because there is a government subsidy fund for livestock killed by wolves but not other predators like bears, cougars, coyotes etc. instated when wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone

      From this book: The Killing of Wolf number Ten

      • Neato@kbin.social
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        7 months ago

        Why is there a subsidy for that? Ranchers should be able to protect their herds without wantonly murdering wolves. Fuck, get some drones with pepper spray or stun guns. The future is now cowboys!