The story of a Montana woman who, last fall killed and skinned a domestic dog, then proudly posted photos on her social media pages, has sparked a flood of public outrage.
It should. The woman allegedly mistook the dog for a wolf, saying she was excited to share that she had “smoked a wolf pup.” When others pointed out that she had actually killed a dog, likely a husky and not a young wolf, she doubled down on her actions, saying that if she were in that situation again, she still would have pulled the trigger.
The photos are gut wrenching. In one, the woman holds up the dead dog’s head and smiles. In another, she poses next to the dog’s skinned body, seemingly prepared as a trophy rug for a wall or floor display.
According to media outlets, the husky and at least 11 others had been abandoned in the Doris Creek area of Flathead National Forest in Montana. The local sheriff’s office reported that several of the dogs tested positive for parvovirus, a highly contagious disease transmissible to dogs, foxes, coyotes and wolves. An investigation is ongoing.
The woman who killed the husky defended her actions by saying that she hadn’t killed anybody’s pet. Somehow, that’s not an excuse.
But the context here points to a larger and troubling reality about the status and persecution of wolves in the West. They are killed every day during trophy-hunting seasons in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. In Montana, trophy hunters can kill up to 20 wolves each and in Idaho there’s no limit at all.
This is how the killing is carried out in 2022: Wolves are chased down with packs of radio-collared dogs, shot at night with the aid of night-vision goggles, or captured in steel jawed leghold traps and strangling wire neck snares.
Wolf watching in Lamar Valley, Wyoming. Photo: PICRYL
In Idaho, even mothers and pups in their dens can be killed year-round. They’re slaughtered by the hundreds each year — both legally and by poachers and lawbreakers who live by the “shoot, shovel and shut up” code of killing wildlife.
The killing of a husky under these circumstances is a tragedy, one born of a trigger-happy mindset about killing wolves, and now, it would seem, any canid that might be mistaken for one. In that sense, it’s part of the larger tragedy that threatens America’s wolf populations, one that we could prevent by restoring federal protections for them.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently considering whether or not to relist wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains under the federal Endangered Species Act.
If authorities can identify and punish anyone responsible for the abandonment of the dogs, or find a way to hold the woman who killed the husky accountable, they certainly should do so. As companions at home and in the field, dogs are special, and a society that fails to protect them is not one to be envied. But we can also think about how we treat wolves in light of this incident.
In the West, we know that wolves are ecologically important as well as a huge magnet for ecotourism. Their presence is worth literally billions of tourist dollars annually to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
It’s the height of folly to destroy their populations, and Western states with their disturbing and vicious policies are not merely out of step with majority opinion concerning the trophy killing of wolves. They are also divorced from everything we know about the value of wolves to the region’s ecological balance.
Killing wolves out of some misplaced zeal threatens to undo decades of progress toward recovery. That is why it is vital for the federal government to restore protections to wolves in the Northern Rockies now.
Amanda Wight is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, a nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. She is a program manager of wildlife protection for the Humane Society of the United States.
This is disgusting and I had a difficult time reading it.
No one has to hold up a trophy Hunter. It’s just another way of killing an innocent animal.
I’m disgusted by the satisfaction these monsters get out of it…
Deplorable. Stop the killing
This woman claims to be a seasoned hunter but yet she can’t tell the difference between a Wolf and a Dog.
She has no business owning a firearm.
I’m glad her grandmother wasn’t around she might’ve mistaken her for a Bear.
This terrible the wolves are w
there and avoid people when possible why people have no trouble screaming and killing walls like they’re a pest is so wrong. I where I live there are no wolves or coyotes. They are braver. However, we don’t go around with hunting parties seeing them out to shoot them they have been shot. Yes but I don’t think people go outside. Let’s get some coyotes wolves are beautiful and they were endangered, so you’d like to wipe them out again, you ignorant bunch of people . This is why laws were enacted for hunting fishing mining because people just do it indiscriminately and act like it’s their God-given right to wipe a species out just for the thrill of it in a pretty boring world with no animals in it..
She’s disgusting!
Doubling down on her enjoyment of killing (potentially) a pet is absolutely disgusting. Let’s not forget the pleasure in torturing and killing animals is a common trait of psychopaths. Not something to be proud of.
This is horrific. What kind of sick mind says and does this!! She should be charged with animal abuse!!!
Well, let’s start at the beginning shall we? The appropriate authorities must identify the person or people who are abandoning these “pets.” Do not lose sight of where the problem begins.
To kill & skinned an animals of any furry kinds, domestic or wild, proudly displayed as Trophies is unacceptable, period. Humanity’s at it’s worst!
I totally agree! What an idiot trigger happy dumb human! I hope he license is taken away for life. What will she do next shoot human child walking in the woods?!
I believe you might be trigger happy with your comments… “shoot human child walking in the woods.” You might be better if you take the emotion out of the story then, come back and contribute something more worthwhile.
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently considering whether or not to relist wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains under the federal Endangered Species Act.” Don’t consider it.. they SHOULD put the wolves back to Endangered Species!!!
Here’s the biggest issue. If a hunter is not 100% sure of what they are fixing to shoot at then they’re not supposed to shoot at all. This woman was fully aware of that fact and there’s no way she was sure that she was seeing a wolf through the scoope of her rifle and shouldn’t have squeezed the trigger and shot the animal period. All hunters know the golden rule and she definitely knows the golden rule as well.
The war on wolves and other predators needs to end…. This woman is a disgrace…..
SHE SHOULD BE CHARGED WITH ANIMAL ABUSE AND MORE!!
I saw the photos of the dog killer. Gruesome. Hope she gets prosecuted.
The science tells us all wild animals need management. As much as we enjoy seeing wolves, bears and cougars in the wild, you can’t just let them breed out of control. There has to be a limit, natural or otherwise, to keep populations in check. We can debate what limit that is, but there has to be a limit. If nature doesn’t do that job, then unfortunately trigger-pullers have to. Besides, sometimes a bullet is more humane than starvation, disease or getting wounded in a traffic accident and left to die. Just a fact of life.
(As far as the woman in this story, yeah- she screwed up)
Science tells us we killed most of the apex predators and interrupted the normal cycle of life. Not to mention destroying the bison and passenger pigeon. Starvation and disease were and are a normal part of the cycle.
What about too many humans, damaging ecosystems planet-wide?
Should we be managing human populations by hunting as well, this is what your opinion logically leads to.
Also, are you all vegans here, if you consider killing and torturing animals wrong? Or are you just selectively worried about the treatment of some arbitrarily chosen animals, but torture of pigs – as intelligent as dogs – at factory farms is surely perfectly ok to you?
“Their presence is worth literally billions of tourist dollars annually to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.”
I’m not interested in hunting wolves but am also not anti-hunting like her employer. With that said, the above statement wouldn’t hold up to a five minute fact check by an eighth grader.
Prison time for her! I’m not liking at those pictures bc it just makes me sick that people get a kick out killing animals. Wow!
Hopefully a pack of wolves and dogs get in touch with her and get up close and very personal with this psychopath, let her feel what that poor dog felt as he felt his drain away
Personally, I’m going to cut the hunter some slack here. She was legally wolf hunting and was not expecting a domestic dog (which looks very similar to a wolf) to appear. She was expecting a wolf. I don’t think that she should be punished in any way. If anything, she actually helped the local wolf population out by killing a dog with a contagious Parovirous.
I get so tired of these anti-hunting articles. It’s the same shit every time and feels like extremely low-hanging fruit. And then reading the comments is disheartening. AJ readers are calling this hunter a “monster” (Heidi Makarem), suggesting that she would shoot her own grandmother and insinuating that the hunter’s grandmother resembles a bear (Danielle Bear), “she’s disgusting” (Rebecca), suggesting the hunter kills and tortures animals due to being a “psychopath” (Chris), a “sick mind” (Jen), “an idiot trigger happy dumb human” (Sharron Carey).
I’m not feeling like this is the AJ community I know. Yes, the hunter made a big mistake but those are some pretty nasty things to call her. In my eyes, this article was a miss.
I felt like the article raised interesting questions about why people get upset about a dog being shot but would be less so about a wolf.
I think you’re being mighty generous.
Will – I agree with you, the vitriol is sad…. hate/anger/violence is not the answer.
Justin H – I agree that people’s reactions over a dog are interesting (I look forward to the next article supporting hunting of wolves and wild dogs!)
Perhaps you missed the last few AJ articles touting hunters as conservationists. Btw, this has happened before, but last time the shot “wolf” was wearing a collar and tags. I understand these are rare, sensationalized cases, but the slaughter of wolves is not. Also, by posting on social media, this woman brought the attention on herself.
Siberian Huskies look nothing similar to wolves. They are much smaller, have shorter legs, less coat, and their coloring looks nothing like a wolf. She knew what she was doing and even if she didn’t know what she was shooting at she shouldn’t have shot. Also the dog was a you puppy l at a time of year there wouldn’t have been wolf pups that size if I’m not mistaken of the time of year she did this.
Really?!?! Like another person said. Seasoned hunter??? Who can’t tell the difference between dog and wolf! Sorry excuse!! She needs to be penalized very severely!!!!! Stop the killing and trophy hunting!!!!
I am pro HUNTING,
BUT
80-90% of the shooters out there are NOT HUNTERS.
They do not know there hind end from a hole in the ground.
And TROPHY shooters are at the bottom of the barrel
Respect for your prey, use every bit of the meat, hide and bones.
This woman and most of our current population of shooters do not posses these attributes.
Killing of wolves by the methods described here is beyond despicable and is totally unwarranted and unsupportable.
The one commenter who tried to defend this by saying management is necessary?
THESE METHODS ARE NOT “MANAGEMENT”, they are extermination, and are not supported by science, nor morality.
Thank you Russ! Ethical hunter right there.
Thanks Russ!
Night vision goggles? Killing a mother and pups in the den? When I learned to hunt, these were things that would get your license taken and maybe never given back.
“But it is so hard!, I need to do this!” is no excuse. Killing another living thing *should* be difficult. That life should be respected and celebrated, just like the life of this animal typing these words And sometimes you do not get what you want, no matter how hard you tried. THOSE are lessons gained from many years of (bow)hunting.
If I want meat, I have a grocery store. If I want to kill something, I have a flyswatter. If your expectation is that you deserve to shoot something every time you put your boots on, you and I are going to disagree.
Yes, not a lot of hunters talk to me more than once 🙂
Yesterday here in France a hunter got two years of suspended sentence for killing a human he mistook for a wild boar !!!WTF .There is as well a lot to do here. Politicians backing countryside hunters to protect their votes.
The hunter may be an idiot but dogs in the wild are just as dangerous as a wolf in the wild. I’ve seen wild dogs attack pets and people.
Pets outside the home do serious damage. Feral cats (domesticated cats that roam freely) kill almost 500 million birds a year. (https://www.audubon.org/news/feral-cat-predation-birds-costs-billions-dollars-year)
Just because we have labeled animals as pets doesn’t remove their classification as predators or they negative impact on actual wildlife.
I love AJ because it celebrates and highlights non-consumptive, human powered adventure. However, the total lack of nuance and blatant demonizing of The hunting community in this article and in the comments that follow are shocking. It casts all hunters after the example of the worst, and shows no understanding of how hunting is used as a tool in wildlife management, and how much hunters support our common cause of natural resource conservation. This fractious, vilifying rhetoric is not what we need in the outdoor community.
That’s terrible. Should not kill a wolf unless it showing some aggressive behavior, which is rare, as they avoid humans when possible. And then it turns out to be a dog. WTF!
Seriously, folks are whining about a diseased dog getting shot…but support animal shelters that euthanize dogs on a monthly basis?!?! Some of y’all need to get a grip.
“The husky and at least 11 others had been abandoned in the Doris Creek area”. This is pretty disturbing on its own.
I am disgusted both by her actions, and the lawmakers response to them. She should be held accountable. Now, others will repeat this deplorable act because they’ve been enabled to do so.
I strongly disagree with the idea that wolves should always be exempt from hunting in the West. For there to be buy-in to their presence in the rural west, legal options for wolf hunting need to exist. In the best-case scenario, to create a vested hunting community that funds and lobbies for their restoration and prosperity similar to what occurs with bighorn sheep and elk. At the very least it would diffuse some of the sense of imposition regarding wolves in the West.
Wolf hunting should be scientifically managed based on local conditions to ensure their permanent presence along with RIGOROUSLY enforced regulations. Without legally regulated hunting people will still kill wolves, but out of malice or outsourced to government wildlife control agencies.
We live in a society where “everybody is always right.” And she’s one of them.
I am a hunter. Not a “trophy hunter.” While I abhore indiscriminately killing of animals IMHO this article is aptly titled an opinion piece.
I think the author groups all hunters as trophy hunters and that all hunters do nothing but kill, kill, kill which is absolutely false.
The last two seasons I have not harvested a deer even though I have purchased archery, firearm and muzzle loader licenses for each season.
I have been getting more satisfaction from being outdoors experiencing its beauty that the taking of an animal.
There are a great many hunters just like me and we are not ” trophy hunters.”
I do not condone the actions of this individual and think the the specific incident is quite terrible, but this article is extremely one-side and falsely posits that there are two sides to this arguments, blood- thirsty hunters and conservationist like the Humane Society of the United States.
This could not be further from the truth.
Currently, legal hunting practices within the rules and regulations of the given state or province does not have long-term negative effects on wildlife populations as a whole. Past practices of predator-control focused killing of wolves no longer takes place and the species is on a population increase as whole.
This article unfortunately tries to pull on false narratives created within the article and directs away from meaningful discussions about wolf populations, wildlife corridors, urban fragmentation of habitat, habitat availability, and regulated hunting.
I believe the Justin (or another AJ writer) stated they they are a hunter and support the practice overall when does right.
HSUS stated goal is to ban hunting overall and they use articles like this to achieve that goal. I think its unfortunate Justin and AJ are using the AJ platform to further this goal.
I’m not a hunter, but am in no way anti-hunting. We have no goals for hunting or not hunting here. This was an opinion piece we thought was worth sharing. As with all opinion pieces, they are the author’s opinion only, not AJ’s.
Justin, thanks for the response, I appreciate that. I think the interesting thing about this and other opinion pieces is that this author (and her organization) cannot get their message as effectively without without media platforms (such as AJ) publishing these articles. I agree, I think its an interesting opinion piece, but there is definitely a connection between the piece being published and the platform that publishes it. I look forward to this and other opinion pieces on AJ. Thank you.