The Mining Gazette out of Michingan tells of two men who get two sentences for killing wolves in Michigan. Both wolves were killed on the same day in different places. The two thousand and a bit of probation seems light to me, especially given their listed status –
Men sentenced for killing wolves
By KURT HAUGLIE
Mining Gazette
Comments
That’s a pretty cheap deterrent in my estimation. Some slob hunters and poachers will surely look at the sentences and laugh.
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is still a very remote area; and some really strange things go on there. There’s a whole lot of trees and deer and not very many people. It sort of sets the stage for incidents like there.
I agree; it looks like they got off pretty cheap given the circumstances of the incidents. The older gentleman, Wudzinski, was arrested in a hunting blind with a deer carcass staked-out as bait. Large, leghold traps were placed around the deer carcass. The arrangement of the scene strongly suggests that Wudzinski and his cronies were attempting to catch and kill wolves. Wudzinski stated that he thought the collared wolf was a deer coming into his bait pile.
At any rate, Judge Tingstead gave him the lowest sentence possible under Michigan code. The judge, like many old time UP residents, doesn’t like wolves eating all their deer (their words, not mine). Deer are sacred animals in the UP reserved only for the enjoyment of hunters. The other fellow convicted of wolf poaching in Iron County got a little more sentencing, but also, just a slap on the wrist. Although delisted now, wolves were still listed when the poaching took place. The judges had to convict the shooters of some crime.
The last wolf shooter to come before Judge Tingstead (in 2003) got off pretty light, as well. In this incident, the shooter killed a wolf from his pick-up. He claimed that he was being stalked by a wolf and went to his truck to get his gun. Obviously, if he made it to his truck, he was in no danger and could have easily left the scene. The judge delayed the trail for six months until the wolf was downlisted from endangered to threatened in order to give the shooter a lower fine.
Judges have given deer poachers in the UP over $5000 fines in recent years. The state has also confiscated the shooters’ rifles and trucks. And that’s for shooting deer! Deer in Michigan are as thick as fleas. It’s always an adventure dodging deer while driving at dusk in this state.
Wolves in the Lake States are now solely under the guiding hands of the states and judges like these. The US Fish and Wildlife “Service” has been able to wash their hands of this troublesome, controversial critter. Federal protection, seen pretty much as a big joke in wolf country, is gone. I suspect that this will be the last that any one hears of poachers being sentenced for killing wolves in Michigan.