Target: Mark Gordon, Governor of Wyoming
Goal: Strengthen animal cruelty laws and ensure permanent hunting revocation for the man who ran the a wolf down with a snowmobile and taunted it.
A case that sparked international outrage has concluded with what many animal welfare advocates are calling a deeply inadequate sentence — 18 months of supervised probation and a $1,432 fine — for a man who pleaded guilty to felony animal cruelty after running down a wolf with a snowmobile, muzzling it, and parading the injured animal around a Wyoming bar. According to court records, the man used a snowmobile to pursue, strike, and maim the wolf before bringing it — injured and bound — into the Green River Bar in Daniel, Wyoming, where he taunted it while it suffered. Photographs of the man posing with the muzzled, injured animal while holding a beer spread globally and drew widespread condemnation. The sentencing judge himself acknowledged the conduct was “disturbing” and that “the keeping of the animal was cruel.”
Despite the felony conviction, the man will face no prison time unless he violates his probation conditions. He was ordered to abstain from alcohol, prohibited from hunting or fishing for 18 months, and required to complete substance abuse treatment. Animal welfare organizations have condemned the outcome, with the Wyoming Director of the Western Watersheds Project stating publicly that the case “spotlights a difficult reality in Wyoming that some forms of cruelty to wild animals are still legal or considered nonviolent.” The Wyoming Legislature also failed to pass a law prohibiting the running over of predators with snowmobiles, instead only requiring that the animal be killed quickly — a legislative gap that allowed this conduct to occur in the first place.
Wyoming’s wildlife laws contain provisions that, critics argue, created the conditions for this act of cruelty — and the legislature’s failure to close those gaps sends a troubling message about the value placed on wild animal lives. A wolf was run down with a snowmobile, muzzled while injured, and displayed publicly while suffering — and the result is probation and a fine of less than $1,500. Sign below to demand the Governor of Wyoming act to strengthen the state’s animal cruelty statutes, close the predator exception loopholes that were exploited in this case, and ensure that future acts of wildlife torture carry sentences that genuinely reflect the severity of the conduct.
PETITION LETTER:
Daer Governor Gordon,
We are writing in response to a deeply troubling case that drew global outrage — the guilty plea and sentencing of a man who ran down an injured wolf with a snowmobile, muzzled the animal, and paraded it around a bar while it suffered. Despite pleading guilty to felony animal cruelty, the man received 18 months of probation, a fine of less than $1,500, and no prison time. The sentencing judge described the conduct as “disturbing,” and animal welfare advocates from around the world have condemned both the act itself and the legal framework that resulted in such a lenient outcome.
We are gravely concerned that Wyoming’s current animal cruelty statutes contain predator exception provisions that were nearly exploited to block prosecution entirely in this case — and that the state legislature has since failed to pass meaningful reform to prevent snowmobile pursuit of predators. The Wyoming Director of Western Watersheds Project publicly noted that “some forms of cruelty to wild animals are still legal or considered nonviolent” under Wyoming law. This must change. Wild animals — wolves included — deserve legal protection from deliberate, malicious acts of torture, regardless of their classification as predators.
We respectfully demand that your office pursue urgent legislative reform to close the predator exception loopholes in Wyoming’s animal cruelty statutes, ensure that future acts of wildlife torture carry meaningful custodial sentences, and advocate for a permanent revocation of hunting and firearms privileges for those convicted of felony animal cruelty. The wolf in this case had no voice and no protection. We ask that you be that voice now.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo credit: Casey Ulesich
