Opinion

Animal welfare groups double reward to $30,000 for information on wolf torture

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The Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action have doubled their reward — now totaling $30,000 — for information that leads to the arrest, conviction and sentencing of Cody Roberts to at least one year in prison.

Roberts is the Daniel, Wyo. resident who shocked the conscience of the nation with his abuse of Theia, the posthumously named wolf he ran over with a snowmobile. Roberts tortured the young female wolf in front of patrons at the Green River Bar, and then he killed her after she endured much suffering.

Stalling in the Robertscase is not sitting well with millions of Americans who demand justice for horrific and intentional acts of cruelty against a young female wolf by Cody Roberts,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. We treat it as a solemn responsibility to remind law enforcement of the statutes at their disposal and to provide incentives to witnesses to report details of Robertsmalicious acts against an innocent animal. This man is a danger to the community, and no reward payments are too high for information that facilitates his prosecution.”

The reward is now $30,000, and anyone with information that may result in a successful criminal case should contact animalcrueltytips@animalwellnessaction.org. The reward will be divided proportionately among tipsters if multiple people step forward with reliable information.

 Thanks to principled witnesses, Cody Robertssavagery is known. We ask others to step forward with information. The serial acts of cruelty played out over hours in late February were made public thanks to witnesses who described Robertsabuses and released photos of the bound, debilitated and grievously wounded adolescent female wolf.

Weeks ago, Roberts was fined $250 for possessing live wildlife, but that penalty is universally recognized as insufficient and not proportional to his crimes. Sublette County officials announced that they have opened an investigation, but no charges tied to the abuse have been filed.

One source shared a photo with a Wyoming news outlet in which Roberts poses with the bound, defeated animal while holding what appears to be a can of beer. Other sources provided video of the grievously injured animal unable to move at a bar.

The Washington D.C.-based groups issued a legal analysis detailing that no legal exemption shields Roberts from being charged under the states animal cruelty statute, which allows for felony-level penalties.

Wyoming must ban the use of snowmobiles to run down wolves. In addition to demanding a successful prosecution of Roberts, the Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action are calling on Wyoming officials to ban the use of snowmobiles and other motorized vehicles to run down wolves and other predatory animals.”

Animal welfare groups along with a larger coalition of organizations have also announced their intent to take U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to federal court to restore federal protections for wolves given the insufficiency of Wyomings limitations on killing wolves.

Groups are also vigorously opposing a bill in Congress that would delist wolves across all of their range in the Lower 48 states.

You just cannot have delisting of wolves if you allow people to run down wolves with snowmobiles, set them on fire, or kill them by other horrific and extreme methods outside the bounds of civilized conduct,” added Pacelle. Savage behavior toward wolves must trigger restored federal protections because the animals are put at risk of extirpation by the combination of the absence of limits on killing wolves across much of their range and the irrational hatred toward wolves exhibited by a small number of people in Wyoming. Wyoming must take action to protect wolves or lose its authority to manage them.”

ABOUT

Animal Wellness Action is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) whose mission is to help animals by promoting laws and regulations at federal, state and local levels that forbid cruelty to all animals. The group also works to enforce existing anti-cruelty and wildlife protection laws. Animal Wellness Action believes helping animals helps us all. X: @AWAction_News

The Center for a Humane Economy is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) whose mission is to help animals by helping forge a more humane economic order. The first organization of its kind in the animal protection movement, the Center encourages businesses to honor their social responsibilities in a culture where consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders abhor cruelty and the degradation of the environment and embrace innovation as a means of eliminating both. The Center believes helping animals helps us all. X: @TheHumaneCenter

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