Don't remove protections for wolves

In a devastating move, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed removing federal Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves across the country. Removing federal protections would ensure wolves living in fellow Great Lakes region states like Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin will once again find themselves in the crosshairs of trophy hunters and trappers.

When wolves in the Great Lakes region lost their federal ESA protections in 2012, nearly 1,500 wolves - including many pups - were killed under reckless trophy hunting and trapping programs in just three seasons. Trophy hunters and trappers use cruel and unsporting methods, including snares, steel-jawed leg hold traps, baiting, and chasing down with packs of hounds.

As a Christian, I find this deeply concerning. Trapping and killing animals in such manners normalizes an unhealthy violence toward living beings and perpetuates a lack of respect for creation that undermines our God-granted responsibility as stewards of the earth and all creatures.

The current proposal from the FWS is based on politics, not science. States have shown time and again that they will kowtow to trophy hunters and trappers rather than managing wolves using sound science. We must tell the FWS that we want to keep wolves protected. You can help by submitting a polite comment by the May 14 deadline through the Regulations.gov website www.regulations.gov, search "84 FR 9648".

Patricia Wegner, Pharm.D.

Naperville