UPDATE, April 8, 2024: Director Says Wyoming Game And Fish Not Hiding Anything In Wolf Torment Case
Cowboy State Daily has obtained a photo of a wolf that was captured and had its mouth taped shut while it was reportedly taken to a local man’s house and a bar in rural Daniel, Wyoming, before it was killed.
The photo shows the wolf with red tape wound tightly around its muzzle sitting and looking down while Cody Roberts of Daniel poses with the animal in his house. They are on a tile floor with coats and other clothing hanging behind them.
The photo, provided exclusively to Cowboy State Daily, confirms some of the reports about a Wyoming man who captured a live wolf and showed it off around town before killing it.
The story has sparked outrage throughout Wyoming’s outdoors and wildlife community, along with anger from animal rights groups calling for harsher punishment for the man, who was cited by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department for having the wolf.
'Sickened'
Rob Wallace, who oversaw the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service as the Assistant Secretary for the Interior under the Trump administration, said he was “sickened” by the photo, which Cowboy State Daily shared with him Saturday morning.
“This is awful,” Wallace said from his Teton County home. “Wyoming represents the best in wildlife stewardship and this is a sad and disgusting outlier.”
“In no way do I believe this represents who we are as a state,” he added.
Wallace has been around the wolf issue for decades. He served as the governor’s chief of staff when wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone back in 1995.
Hit With A Snowmobile
The story began Feb. 29 when a man reportedly ran down the wolf with a snowmobile, disabling it.
Instead of killing the animal on the spot, he kept the wolf and took it back to his home, then to the bar, before finally taking it out behind the bar and killing it.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department verified that somebody has been cited and fined for being in possession of a live wolf, but didn’t release that person’s name, the name of the investigating game warden or any exact details of the case.
Sublette County Circuit Court records, however, show that local resident Cody Roberts, 42, was cited for a wildlife violation stemming from an incident that day, Feb. 29, and that Adam Hymas was the investigating agent.
Game and Fish spokeswoman Breanna Ball sent Cowboy State Daily a statement about the case via email Tuesday.
“An anonymous reporting party notified the Wyoming Game and Fish Department that an individual was alleged to be in possession of a live wolf. The reporting party notified the Department on March 1, 2024. According to the investigation, the individual possessed the live wolf on 2/29/24,” according to the statement.
“The individual was hunting when he came across the wolf in the predator zone and intended to harvest it. However, the wolf was transported alive back to his residence and later to a business in Daniel, WY. The individual euthanized the wolf later that day. The individual was cited for violating Chapter 10, Importation and Possession of Live Warm-Blooded Wildlife,” according to Game and Fish.
Cited for possessing a live wolf, the Roberts was fined $250, a penalty Game and Fish has confirmed is the only violation the agency has the power to enforce.
Because killing a wolf in one of Wyoming’s “predator zones” is legal, that means they may be killed at any time, without a bag limit and no hunting tags required.
Call For More Charges
That regulation also makes the mistreatment of this wolf not illegal under Wyoming’s laws. While people can be charged with cruelty to animals, that only applies to pets and domestic animals, not predators like wolves.
Even so, there has been a loud and emotional outcry to charge Roberts for cruelty, including a pair of animal rights groups lobbying Sublette County officials to level harsher penalties in the case.
But it’s unclear whether any further charges could be filed under Wyoming statutes, Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.
As of Friday afternoon, no documents from a law enforcement agency calling for further charges in the case had come across his desk, he said.
In their letter, Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy write: “Roberts’ actions clearly warrant a punishment more severe than the $250 ticket he received for possession of live wildlife — such an anemic response on the part of law enforcement will be seen by some as tacit approval of his crime and can only motivate other like-minded individuals driven by hatred of wolves to engage in similar, repugnant behavior.”
Even if he wanted to, Melinkovich said he can’t act on his own.
“I can’t do anything independently on my own until something comes to me from a peace officer,” Melincovich said.
If and when such documents are sent to his office, Melincovich said he could make a determination whether to file charges.
Greg Johnson can be reached at: Greg@CowboyStateDaily.com
