October 31, 1998

Tim Kelly
National Geographic TV
1145 17th St. NW
Washington, DC 20036

Dear Mr. Kelly,

A lot of people were anticipating National Geographic Explorer's feature on the Wolf Reintroduction -- "Living With Wolves." Unfortunately, it was a wasted opportunity to inform and educate the public about the Yellowstone wolf recovery effort. It was the worst special feature on TV I have seen about the wolves.

The program was either poorly researched, poorly edited, or both. It made wolf reintroduction the classic, and wrong, "wolves versus people and the "old west." The interview with Steve Gordon on the Diamond G only showed NG-TV’s gullibility by accepting everything he said about the wolves killing his cattle and his belief that they aren't natural wolves, but that they are wolves from Yellowstone where, supposedly, wolves have no fear of people. NG-TV gave no history of the Washakie Pack. The show didn't mention that the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Wildlife Services (aka Animal Damage Control) doubts many of the ranch claims that the cattle were killed by wolves. Nor did the show mention the lack of public access to the ranch for independent verification, or the fact that the cattle died from other causes too, such as people with guns, according to the recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report that showed cattle with bullet holes in their skulls.

The NG-TV failed to state that Gordon is a relatively new owner of the Diamond G from New York City, and not the last of some "old west" family. As for myself, I remember when it was owned by the Disney family, and I got a chance to see this beautiful country that is now essentially closed to public access.

It’s disappointing to see NG-TV fall for the rhetoric and produce a biased, poorly researched show like this. This show is simple sensationalism. The public expects more from National Geographic and usually gets it. If you want to make amends, please come out again and do a more objective piece on where people are actually living with wolves and accepting them or tolerating them as part of the Wyoming landscape. In most cases the Yellowstone wolves are a real success story. You only found the one bad apple who is spoiling the barrel of a real conservation success story.

I hope you will follow up on this issue and correct this problem. You may contact me, the federal and state agencies, Defenders of Wildlife (who compensated Gordon for the cattle losses last year) or any of the other cattle ranchers in the area who have NOT had problems with wolves. There’s a bigger story here and you missed it.

Sincerely,

Meredith Taylor

cc: Sean Casey, Public Relations Coordinator