Live Bait, Ultralight Wolf Hunt Bill Fuels Controversy

The wolf hunt in Idaho could soon be taken to a whole new elevation — hundreds of feet in the air, to be exact.

Sen. Jeff Siddoway (R-Terreton) proposed a bill last week that would allow Idahoans to hunt wolves from ultra-light aircraft and use live bait in traps.

As a rancher himself, Siddoway said he’s lost several sheep to wolves he hasn’t been able to catch. The bill, he said, would make catching those wolves easier.

“It’s to give us some tools to go after the wolves that we haven’t had before,” Siddoway said.

But not everyone agrees. Ralph Maughan is the president of the Wolf Recovery Foundation and thinks the live bait aspect of the bill is archaic.

“It really is a bad bill from our point of view. It takes us back to the 1890s,” Maughan said.

Maughan said the bill is all about Siddoway’s personal interests.

“When he introduced he said, ‘I’ll admit, I have a conflict of interest here, I’ve lost $30,000 to $50,000 of sheep to wolves through the years, and this is to help take care of it,'” Maughan said.

The wolf population has decreased recently, and so has the number of livestock attacked by wolves, which is relatively low anyway, Maughan said. He’s concerned about using live animals just to lure wolves to their deaths, but Siddoway said live bait would be used in cages.

“You would use tall wire, 4 to 6 feet high, that would secure the animals in the corral and then you’d put traps on the outside of the corral,” Siddoway said.

He said that hunting from ultralight aircraft wouldn’t put people in danger because it’s something that’s been done before. Maughan said it could come down to economics.

“We don’t think it’s necessary to use airplanes and the cost of flying an airplane around will soon be more than one sheep,” he said.

Even though he disagrees with this bill, he thinks the current wolf hunt is being well-controlled, Maughan said.

Siddoway is hopeful the bill will pass the Senate.