Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association, wildlife advocates react to delisting of the gray wolf

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – The Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association is speaking out about the U.S. House passing the “Pet and Livestock Protection Act”.

“I’ll be honest, our cattlemen are pretty fed up. I mean, they have been dealing with this issue for a long time, so. I mean just really felt like we are finally making progress here. And that’s really exciting that we can help our producers deal with this issue,” says Brady Zuck, a cow-calf producer and the past president of the Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association.

Brady Zuck, one of many livestock producers in Wisconsin, is responding to the U.S. House passing a bill to delist the gray wolf from the “Endangered Species Act”.

The population of gray wolves is increasing, and according to the Wisconsin DNR, from April 2024 to April 2025, there were 70 verified wolf conflicts with livestock.

“That’s what’s been the most frustrating, is that we have producers locally here in northwest Wisconsin or your area by Green Bay that are dealing with this issue, and it’s all controlled in Washington, and we have people in our state that could make those management decisions, but their hands are tied,” says Zuck.

Supporters of the bill say non-lethal methods used to keep gray wolves away, such as strobe lights and music, are only short-term solutions.

“We’re asking, saying hey, if we’re having problems with wolves on farms, we need ways to effectively deal with that, that work,” says Zuck.

The Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance shared a statement from Thursday about the delisting, saying: “We are disgusted by this reckless abandonment of science-based wildlife management. However, our advocates showed up in extraordinary numbers against overwhelming odds, and their voices were heard. This organization and our supporters are not defeated.”

“As cattlemen, we never said we want to eliminate all wolves, we don’t want any wolves, we never said that. But we just need to make sure we have the tools in place that we can, you know, if we have wolves killing calves, we need a way to deal with it, right?” Zuck says.

The bill still has to pass the Senate and reach the president’s desk before changes are made.

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