Northeast Environmentalists Want To Protect Interbred Canids (Dogs)

Where will the absolute insanity stop when it comes to efforts by extremists to end hunting, fishing and trapping, close off lands to human use, strip us of our rights and destroy our god given right in the pursuit of happiness?

It has gotten so bad that a group, made up of representatives from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and New York, have petitioned the Department of Interior in order to place protections under the Endangered Species Act for any interbred species of dogs, coyotes, wolves or any combination of the above, claiming these all to be unique species.

In accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act and/or the Endangered Species Act, we hereby petition the U.S. Department of Interior and the Service to regulate the commerce or taking, and treat as endangered species in the States of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts, coyotes (Canis latrans), coyote/gray wolf hybrids (Canis latrans x Canis lupus), eastern wolves (Canis lycaon), eastern wolf/gray wolf hybrids (Canis lycaon x Canis lupus), coyote/eastern wolf hybrids (Canis latrans x Canis lycaon), and coyote/eastern wolf/gray wolf hybrids (Canis latrans x Canis lycaon x Canis lupus) because of their close resemblance to the federally endangered and protected gray wolf.
In accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act and/or the U.S. Endangered Species Act, we also hereby petition the U.S. Department of Interior and the Service: (1) to establish a Northeastern Gray Wolf Distinct Population Segment consisting of the States of New York, Vermont New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts; and, (2) to develop and implement a Northeastern Gray Wolf Recovery Plan.

Part of this groups reasoning is that with open hunting and trapping seasons on eastern coyote, because some of these coyotes my have interbred with an Eastern gray wolf, it should be protected in order to protect the gray wolf.

We seem only now willing to admit that wolves and domestic dogs have been interbreeding for centuries. Recently it was determined that what made wolves black was the result of interbreeding with dogs. We’ve even found in historic writings, like those of Teddy Roosevelt’s, that Indians and trappers/hunters used to do a lot of interbreeding with wolves and their hunting dogs to develop a dog that could stand up to wolves.

Neither the gray wolf nor the eastern coyote is threatened or in any danger of extinction. To think that we now should consider protecting mongrel dogs in the wild is absolutely ridiculous. When the USFWS gets done reviewing this petition, it should be immediately tossed in the garbage can.

Tom Remington