Here in the mountains there are brown bear and black bear, fox, coyote, lynx, bobcat, cougar, wolves, and wolverine among other predatory species. Invariably, some jackass who has grown up in a cement and glass canyon comes along to insist that he or she knows how to protect the natural world better than those who have grown up with the wilderness at their doorstep and who have maintained that wilderness for several generations. These jackasses bring along lawyers and environmentalists who also grew up in cement and glass canyons to make laws about the flora and fauna of the region . . . this is despite the fact that that same flora and fauna once lived where the cement and glass canyons are now. And each year one or more of these jackasses from the cement and glass canyons wanders off into the wilderness and is eaten or gored by one of the animals "that people SHOULDN'T be afraid of". The saddest thing about this is that the poor animal has to be killed because of the stupidity of the jackass from the cement and glass canyon.
Here, we have a great deal of wildlife and most of that wildlife can be hunted including the wolves. I am very glad of this for one reason: as long as there are people who want to hunt those animals for sport and/or food, there will be people who want to maintain a healthy population of those animals for that reason. In accordance, the state issues hunting licenses based on the number of a particular animal in that region. The money that is made from selling those licenses is used to protect the nature of the region. It is in the places where people view animals as a delicate ornament to be preserved that those animals are eventually pushed out of the way for the sake of convenience or stuck in zoos as a curiosity.
Here is a picture that was taken a couple of years ago near where I live. I love both of these animals, but I also respect them because I know what they are capable of. Please dont be a jackass.
Edit: What you should know. The Swedish are not trying to "exterminate" the wolf population there.
Sweden culls its resurgent wolves
Grey wolves have made a comeback since hunting was banned
Swedish hunters have begun culling wolves for the first time in 45 years after parliament ruled that numbers needed to be reduced again.
More than half the quota of 27 may have died on the first day alone with nine shot dead in Dalarna and up to nine killed in Varmland, Swedish radio says.
Hunters have until 15 February to complete the cull, which will leave Sweden with an estimated 210 wolves.
Some 10,000 hunters were reported to be planning to take part in the hunt.
Hunting in the county of Dalarna was halted as the county's individual quota was nine wolves.
Varmland's quota of nine "may also have been filled", the radio reported later on Saturday.
'Five injured'
In Dalarna, hunters reportedly injured another five wolves.
Every time a hunter shoots and hits a wolf he has to report it to the county authorities, so they can keep track of the local cull.
Earlier, hunters insisted there were measures in place to prevent them shooting too many.
"There's a lot of regulation, hunters have to check the quota every hour," Gunnar Gloersson, of the Swedish Hunters Association, told Swedish radio.
Nevertheless, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation was critical of the decision to proceed with the cull, saying it was against EU legislation as the Swedish wolf population had not reached a healthy level.
A formal complaint was to be issued to the EU Commission, Swedish radio said.
The hunt is timed to end before the mating season, which begins in mid-February.