I'll wager a dinner on wolves and elk

By Todd Wilkinson
regional columnist and author
 

2-9-2004, update 2-12 and 2-22

A lot of folks will be interested in this column where Todd Wilkinson takes on Robert Fanning, head of the Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd Inc., a Montana anti-wolf group.

Fanning, like the similar anti-wolf group in Idaho, seems to have been schooled at the "Horrible Hyperbole Hall of Public Relations." Wolves aren't just bad, they make them sound as awful as an invasion of brain eating aliens, and they're not even talking about chronic wasting disease, which doesn't even seem to bother them much.

Enjoy Wilkinson's challenge to someone who seems to lack a history understanding of Yellowstone's northern range.

One question, is Fanning even from Montana? Or is he an import to Montana, more recent than the wolves he claims to know so much about?

"I'll wager a dinner on wolves and elk"
By Todd Wilkinson

2-12-2003
Here is more from Wilkinson on Fanning
"Illogical arithmetic and wagers ignored"

2-22-2003
Fanning's latest.
According to the Lewiston (Idaho) morning Fanning has been busy in northern Idaho. Fanning, called "Banning" in the article, told a crowd in Grangeville, Idaho that "the introduction of Canadian wolves into the Northwest was a criminal conspiracy by a bunch of  'pot-smoking, wine-sucking, vegetarian lawyers,' to end blood sports and ranching on public lands . . . .' "

" 'I want to see these people in prison for the rest of their lives,' said Bob Banning of the Friends of the North Yellowstone Elk Herd. "I want to see them punished. ... I don't believe God is going to stand and not do something about this.'
Banning addressed a group of about 100 people at the Grangeville Middle School gymnasium Saturday afternoon who had gathered to talk about getting rid of wolves."
 

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