CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Outrage over how a man struck a wolf with a snowmobile, taped the injured animal’s mouth shut and brought it into a bar has resulted in a proposal to tweak Wyoming’s animal cruelty law to apply to people who legally kill wolves by intentionally running them over.

Under draft legislation headed to a legislative committee Monday, people could still intentionally run over wolves but only if the animal is killed quickly, either upon impact or soon after.

Wyoming’s animal cruelty law is currently written to not apply at all to predators such as wolves. The proposed change would require a person who hits a wolf that survives to immediately use “all reasonable efforts” to kill it.

The bill doesn’t specify how a surviving wolf is to be killed after it is intentionally struck.

The fate of the wolf struck last winter in western Wyoming has prompted a fresh look at state policies toward wolves. Wildlife advocates have pushed back against reluctance in the ranching state to change laws written after long negotiations to remove federal protection for the species.

Although further changes to the draft bill may be in the works, the proposal up for discussion Monday wouldn’t change much, said Kristin Combs, executive director of Wyoming Wildlife Advocates.

“Everybody is against torturing animals. There is not a person I’ve come across so far that has said, ‘Yes, I want to continue to do that,’” Combs said Friday.

Caught on camera, the wolf seen lying on a bar floor in Sublette County led to calls to boycott Wyoming’s $4.8 billion-a-year tourism industry centered on Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, which comprise a prime wolf habitat not far from where the wolf was struck.

The organizing has had little effect, with Yellowstone on track for one of its busiest summer seasons on record.

Meanwhile, the man who hit the wolf — and killed it after showing it off — paid a $250 ticket for illegal possession of wildlife but did not face tougher charges.

Investigators in Sublette County said their investigation into the wolf incident has stalled because witnesses refuse to talk. County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich said by email Friday the case remained under investigation and he couldn’t comment on its details.

The draft bill to be discussed Monday would allow somebody who intentionally hits a wolf with a vehicle to be charged with felony animal cruelty if it survives and they don’t kill it right away.

How often wolves in Wyoming are intentionally run over — for a quick death or otherwise — is unknown. Such killings don’t have to be reported and recorded cases like the Sublette County incident are rare.

The case brought fresh attention to Wyoming’s policies for killing wolves, which are the least restrictive of any state where the animals roam. Wolves kill sheep, cattle and game animals, making them unpopular throughout the rural country of ranchers and hunters.

Across the region, state laws seek to keep the predators from proliferating out of the mountainous Yellowstone ecosystem and into other areas where ranchers run cattle and sheep.

In most of the U.S., wolves are federally protected as an endangered or threatened species, but not in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, where they are hunted and trapped under state laws and regulations. In Wyoming, wolves may be killed without limit in 85% of the state outside the Yellowstone region.

Though few in Wyoming have spoken out in favor of what happened to the wolf, officials have been reluctant to change the law to discourage maltreatment. Jim Magagna with the Wyoming Stock Growers Association condemned what happened but called it an isolated incident unrelated to the state’s wolf management laws.

GILLETTE — The Wyoming State Tennis Tournament wrapped up in Gillette over the weekend, with athletes from Green River and Rock Springs showcasing their skills against the state’s best. Both schools had impressive runs in the tournament, with players coming close to making deep runs in their respective brackets.

For the Green River boys, Jake Nielsen fell just two wins short of a top-four finish in the Boys #2 Singles bracket. The Boys #2 Doubles team of Dodson and Neher also came close, needing just one more win to secure a place among the top four finishers. In Boys #3 Doubles, Maez and Myers won their opening match but were defeated in the second round by Brown and Miller of Sheridan, who finished second in the tournament. Neher, Hokanson, and Dylan Archibald also represented the Wolves in Gillette.

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On the girls’ side, Rylin Arnell made a strong start by winning her first-round match in Girls #1 Singles but fell in the second round to state champion Hailey Mathis-Brietkopf from Cheyenne Central. Arnell was just two wins away from a top-four finish. In Girls #2 Singles, Grace Gomez also won her opening match but lost to Rosey Jones from Jackson, who ended up as the tournament’s runner-up. Wahl and English competed in #2 Doubles, winning their first match before falling to Wassink and Dansie from Cody, who went on to finish third. Lopez, Beutel, Davis, and Britton also competed for Green River.

The Rock Springs boys had a strong showing in Boys #1 Doubles, with Aanerud and Wiberg advancing to the third round. They fell to Romer and Christensen of Kelly Walsh, who ultimately won the state championship. In Boys #2 Doubles, Swafford and Powell won their first match but were eliminated by Bingham and Benniga from Jackson, who placed fourth. Jenkins and Powell won their opening match in Boys #3 Doubles but were defeated in the second round by Schutz and Gorman of Cheyenne East, who went on to take third. Tanner Tryzbiak and Emilio Corona also competed for the Tigers in singles matches.

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For the Rock Springs girls, Evie Long fell in her first-round match in Girls #2 Singles but returned to win her first game in the third-place bracket before facing Green River’s Grace Gomez, ending her run there. Cumorah Shuler, Turnwall, Atwood, Killpack, Asper, Anderson, and Miller also represented the Rock Springs Tigers.

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Overall, Green River’s boys finished 12th, while Rock Springs’ boys placed 14th. The Green River girls took 10th, with the Rock Springs girls finishing 14th. Despite the challenging competition, both teams demonstrated resilience and determination.

A climber fell to his death while rappelling down Devils Tower, leaving his partner stranded without a rope on the face of the Wyoming geological formation.

The stuck climber was rescued unharmed after crying out for help Sunday evening, Devils Tower National Monument Superintendent Doug Crossen said Wednesday.

The death of Stewart Phillip Porter, 21, of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Sunday, was the seventh climbing fatality in the park’s 118-year history. Some 6,000 people climb the formation every year.

The two were on a relatively easy climbing route called El Cracko Diablo. They had summited the tower and were headed back down when Porter fell.

How the fall happened was unknown. The accident was still being investigated, Crossen said.

Standing with sheer sides almost 870 feet (265 meters) above the surrounding countryside and a mile (1.6 kilometers) above sea level, Devils Tower is the world’s largest example of columnar jointing — fused pillars of igneous rock that formed as underground magma.

Established in 1906, Devils Tower was the first national monument and played a role in the 1977 film, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”