The Cartoonist Who Cried Wolves! Wolves!
“Thanks to Obama, we’re not ENDANGERED in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, UT, OR, WA, etc. We’re target practice.”
The subject this week for Illustration Friday is “intricate,” and I found these wolves to be just so very detailed and particular.
As it happens, this was also today’s cartoon I did for Slate, so kill 2 with one stone, and all that good stuff!
The Cartoon
This took a long time to draw! I had to study how wolves look different from dogs or coyotes, and how they stand, their fur, nose, etc. And put a bunch in, crowded. And figure out what accessories they could wear. I have to say, as I drew the little one with a potted plant on his head, I got tears in my eyes, he was so cute. Usually I crack myself up, but this went in the opposite direction… Can you tell I love the way these wolfies turned out?
Here in the blog it really needs an outline, with all that white in it, but in the space they give me in Slate and GoComics, it looks fine. (Gocomics has comments.)
The Story in the News
Right after Obama took office he cancelled Bush’s plans to rewrite the Endangered Species Act, affecting wolves, among other animals. I took note of that, thought of this idea, but then put it aside because I wasn’t sure if it was definite. Once you have to write about the news – and believe me, as an editorial cartoonist I’ve become a better journalist – you notice how much of the news is really stuff that might happen, or will happen. Then they report it all again when it actually does happen, as if it’s fresh meat!
So as I was saying, it actually did become law last Friday. Only Obama RESCINDED his protection promises for wolves, and turned them over to the lawless states, not the Federal government any more! So Bush’s original plan succeeded.
The LA Times reported this in a very neutral, uninteresting, boring tone. In a blog there, not in the paper. Oh, and they left some things out. The NY Times gets it:
Jenny Harbine, a lawyer with Earthjustice in Bozeman, Mont., which has sued to keep the federal protections, said, “We’re disappointed.” She added, “Idaho has shown an eagerness to kill as many wolves as possible, and they are drawing up plans for killing wolves as we speak.”
In 2007, Gov. C. L. Otter of Idaho said he favored reducing the number of wolves there to 100 from more than 800. He also said he would be the first to buy a wolf hunting license.
While state wolf management plans in Idaho and Montana assure protection, federal officials say, the one in Wyoming falls short, so the wolf will remain listed there. Yet in most of Wyoming, the wolf is designated as a predator and could be shot on sight if it were to be delisted. Controversy erupted last year when people chased wolves down on snowmobiles and killed them from planes.
Don’t you wish you lived in Idaho or Wyoming, too? And wouldn’t the LA Times have done well to keep ALL the facts in the article?
I believe, as do most biologists, that delisting on state lines is about as unscientific as you can get, which virtually guarantees the greens will win again in court and keep the Big Dog on the endangered species list
That’s how NewWest.net describes protecting animals, in his hunting-friendly terms. The idea, I guess, is that a wolf is a big dog that it’s fun to kill. (and they can’t claim the old “IT’S FOOD” excuse with wolves!)
The Defenders of Wildlife Yellowstone Wolves blog says:
In particular, the rule ignores contemporary scientific research on what constitutes a recovered wolf population and allows wolf populations to be reduced to the point where they could not achieve the natural genetic connectivity thought by scientists to be essential to the species’ long-term survival in the region.
Secretary Salazar reissued the Bush plan without any response to conservation groups.
And who appointed him Secretary? One guess. And it’s not Bush.
*I will no longer be doing political cartoons in this blog. I’ll be posting my Slate cartoons in my new blog, The Opposite of Wrong.
