Setting aside all of the Democrat and Republican shuffling around, Michigan’s 2014 election this year centered on wolves. Now, if you’re like me, you probably weren’t even aware of this unless you happened to look up a version of the ballot a week or two before the first Tuesday of November. You most likely skimmed through both proposals too quickly the first time to really digest them and then just asked your roommate for his or her opinion. Unless you’re a fantastic citizen, you know this is true.
As most of you are undoubtedly aware, while both pro-wolf hunting proposals were voted down, there’s still another sort of law in effect that trumps them anyway. This “law” was an initiative by the Michigan Natural Resource Commission that passed on Aug. 27 of this year which insured that only they could decide what animals could be hunted and when those seasons would be.
In browsing the state government’s website, it seemed that this was an initiative that was made with people in the U.P. in mind. For any animal lover, the idea of why anyone would need to hunt wolves when they already have so many other options seems absurd. But then I wondered - because we are talking about a specific area that also happens to be a four-hour drive away - if there was a reason for this seeming injustice.
The controversy of wolf hunting is relatively recent news since it was only in 2012 that wolves were taken off the endangered species list. Still, even when hunting became legalized, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources reported that only half of the allotted number of wolves allowed were actually taken.
Earlier in August, MLive reported a total of sixteen wolf attacks in 2014 to date. Most of these killed livestock, but owners were compensated for these losses, unlike the attacks on hunting dogs. For these farmers, their issue may be seen as more of a pest instead of a means of financial gain. Since the 2012 legalization, there have been seven attacks specifically on hunting dogs. If there were any hunters out there for the pure sake of revenge, perhaps it would be them.
I have heard plenty of disappointed talk on campus about the issue of the proposals being voted down not mattering in the end. However, Ypsilanti and the greater Ann Arbor area is almost as far away as you can get from the U.P. while still keeping a foot in Michigan. Having a soft spot for animals or not, I feel for all the people who live in our state but live so far north that they often get forgotten about.
I’ve only been up to the U.P. a few times in my life, but enough to know that it’s a whole other world up there. Having the majority of Michiganders make the decision for what’s only affecting their population is probably really frustrating. However, given that the wolf population isn’t far beyond being the endangered mark, there’s no telling how long they’ll be on the Michigan Natural Resource Commission’s list anyway.
