As much as I love red wolves, Sherry often times sends me updates on the happenings inside the red wolf Species Survival Plan and Recovery Program. Sometimes she sends me good news about the breeding program, or maybe just cute pictures of our wolves like the one below. But recently she sent me an email about  a news release that was disturbing.

The release discussed the increase of a reward to anyone who has information about two missing red wolves. Officials suspect that in late April, two radio-collared wild red wolves were killed and taken illegally from the protected land in which they roamed. The first red wolf was located on April 23, 2010 in the eastern part of Hyde County. The second red wolf was located on April 27, 2010 in the western part of Hyde County. Neither wolf has been located since, and there is a reward for anyone who has information that leads to the criminal conviction or arrest of the subjects that illegally took them. The Red Wolf Coalition, Defenders of Wildlife, Humane Society of the United States and the Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust, and Humane Society National Council member Cathy Kangas have all donated to the reward, which is currently $10, 500.

With so many other obstacles that the red wolf population faces, it’s sad to think that intentional killing now has to be added to the list. There have always been random shootings of red wolves in the wild population, but officials usually believe most of those shootings  to occur accidentally by coyote hunters.

There is still a long way to go before the public becomes fully educated about the value that red wolves hold on ecosystems, as well as realizing that they are not nearly as dangerous as people think them to be.  Hopefully, with continued dedication to the cause, we can eventually convince the public that red wolves deserve to be roaming freely in the wild without any interference from us or the judgments we unfairly cast upon them.

If you would like to make a donation to the Red Wolf Coalition, please go to www.redwolves.com or click on the link above.  There is also a short video on the website about the investigation into these red wolf killings.