This Earmark Will Have You Howling

This installment of “At the Trough” involves a project that will have you howling for fiscal restraint. The recently passed Omnibus Appropriations Act designates $870, 000 for wolf breeding facilities in North Carolina and Washington. Specifically, the earmark aims to help breed red wolves, an endangered species. Red wolves are bred in Tacoma, Washington, and are then released into the wild in North Carolina. As recently as the 1970s, only 17 red wolves roamed the wilderness. But thanks to the Point Defiance Zoo’s trademarked “Species Survival Plan”, there are now over 100 red wolves in the wild. Of course, releasing carnivores into the wild begs the following question: what exactly is the virtue of increasing the number of red wolves? After all, they have been known to attack livestock, and were forced to the brink of destruction by fears that they might attack the product of many a farmer’s labor. Further, one would think that this funding might be detrimental to the progress of another earmark in the omnibus. The appropriations act also included a quarter of a million dollars for the Montana Sheep Institute. Did no one think of the patent absurdity of, on the one hand, breeding wolves, and on the other hand, breeding sheep? You might point out that North Carolina and Montana are pretty far apart. However, this sentiment does not give the wolf’s traveling abilities enough credit. Wolves have an incredible ability to travel long distances, and have historically been known to have incredible ranges. Can you imagine the confrontation between a government-subsidized wolf and a government-subsidized sheep? It’s entirely possible that a red wolf, recently released, would attempt to make the long trek back to Washington, like a lost and lonely family puppy longing for its home. Perhaps a miscalculation is made. Perhaps the wolf ends up at a certain Sheep Institute in Bozeman, Montana. Perhaps the wolf will want a snack after the arduous journey… you get the point. Red wolves have not been known to attack humans, but their prey has at times included young calves and smaller domestic animals. While they are not man-eaters, it is, however, morbidly symbolic (or perhaps a portend) that red wolves were observed scavenging upon American corpses on the battlefields of the Mexican-American War. Whatever your thoughts on this species of wolf, this earmark is enough to make me see red.