Thursday, October 8, 2009

It's confirmed

The dead Phantom Hill wolf is Jewel.

Some people object to the personification of wild animals. But this wolf, Jewel, was not a faceless and interchangeable unit. She was a young wolf who helped take care of her younger siblings, who curiously explored her environment, who no doubt enjoyed her life and her family and wanted to go on living.

And now she is dead, her life sold for $11.75 and the cost of a couple of bullets.

1 comment:

Lynne Stone said...

B445 was shot by Billy Ward of Bellevue Idaho. Ward goes around the Wood River Valley bragging that he is a "predator killer", and has a big scrapbook full of dead wildlife photos to prove it. He shot Jewel in Eagle Creek a few miles north of Ketchum. Eagle Creek is a favorite hiking and camping area. There was a dead sheep in the canyon, that probably attracted Jewel as I saw wolf tracks leading to it in the early-season snow. Ward used a predator call and innocent little Jewel, was no match for this brute.