As if the year 2020 couldn’t get any worse, now the beautiful gray wolf — an icon of North America and an endangered species to boot — could be about to go extinct. Just last week, Donald Trump’s Acting Interior Secretary, David Bernhardt, announced that the administration plans to remove gray wolves from the federal endangered species list, effectively stripping them of all the protections that keep them alive. Only 50 years ago, gray wolves were almost completely wiped off the face of the Earth, with fewer than 1,000 of these majestic animals remaining. Thanks to their classification as an “endangered species,” their populations slowly rebounded. Today, there are approximately 5,690 gray wolves in the “lower 48” U.S. states, but that’s nowhere near a full recovery.
The importance of listing a given species as “endangered” can’t be overstated. Once on the list, a species gains access to special protections that help conserve both its population and its critical habitat that it needs to survive. One of the most important defenses this list provides is against hunting. If gray wolves are removed from the endangered species list, it would become open season for hunters to declare war on these wild animals, hunting them all down to the very last cub. Don’t let the Trump administration remove the few safeguards these precious animals have! Their very survival is at stake. Sign the petition now to demand that the U.S. federal government keep gray wolves listed as endangered species!