Man sentenced for seeking to poison wolves

[Ban Hammer 13,110]

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - An outspoken critic of the U.S. government's push to restore wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains was sentenced on Thursday in U.S. District Court to six days in jail and banned from public lands for two years for trying to poison the protected species.

Former Salmon, Idaho, resident Tim Sundles, 49, had pleaded guilty in November to planting tainted meatballs in the Salmon-Challis National Forest in central Idaho in 2004 with the aim of killing western gray wolves.

The pesticide-laced meatballs instead killed a coyote, a fox and magpies and sickened pet dogs, according to court records.

Sundles, a custom ammunition maker who moved to Montana last year, had publicly railed against the 1995 release of wolves into Idaho and Yellowstone National Park to re-establish an animal hunted and poisoned to near extinction.

Sundles was considered a hero by wolf foes in Idaho, where the animal has provoked fierce debate. Many in the state say wolves pose a threat to livestock.

In 2001, Sundles killed a wolf he said had attacked him and his wife while they were camping in the Idaho wilderness.

"Wolves are the worst wildlife disaster in the history of managed wildlife. You have to kill the living daylights out of them," Sundles told Reuters during an interview in November.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in January proposed removing western gray wolves from the federal threatened and endangered species list because of their strong comeback in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

In the mid-1990s the U.S. government released 66 of the animals into the region's remote mountains. They now number approximately 1,300, according to estimates by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials.

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this guy is an

[eric&gen 0]

He is going to have a howling good time in prison with bubba. Maybe one of the inmates will slip him some poison meatballs lol.

[Nagishkaw 510]

[Caladan 19]

"In 2001, Sundles killed a wolf he said had attacked him and his wife while they were camping in the Idaho wilderness."

You know... I'm trying to have sympathy... but when you're camping, you're on the wolf's turf. Does he expect the wilderness to be a fenced off playground?

[Ban Hammer 13,110]

"In 2001, Sundles killed a wolf he said had attacked him and his wife while they were camping in the Idaho wilderness."

You know... I'm trying to have sympathy... but when you're camping, you're on the wolf's turf. Does he expect the wilderness to be a fenced off playground?

i seriously doubt the wolf attacked him. i suspect it's more of a made up story on his part for him to carry on his vendetta against wolves.

[Caladan 19]

That's probably true. Don't get me wrong, balancing the interests of wolf preservation with the interest of ranchers is important, but.... poisoned meatballs? Sure, nothing could go wrong with that..

[Ban Hammer 13,110]

That's probably true. Don't get me wrong, balancing the interests of wolf preservation with the interest of ranchers is important, but.... poisoned meatballs? Sure, nothing could go wrong with that..

most poison baits usually kill everything but the wolves. birds are really hard hit by such.

[Nagishkaw 510]

[Scott & Lai 12]

"In 2001, Sundles killed a wolf he said had attacked him and his wife while they were camping in the Idaho wilderness."

You know... I'm trying to have sympathy... but when you're camping, you're on the wolf's turf. Does he expect the wilderness to be a fenced off playground?

Assuming his story is true, are you saying that if you're camping on the wolf's turf and it attacks, then you're supposed to just be good prey and let it eat you??

[Reba 2]

yes.

[Ban Hammer 13,110]

"In 2001, Sundles killed a wolf he said had attacked him and his wife while they were camping in the Idaho wilderness."

You know... I'm trying to have sympathy... but when you're camping, you're on the wolf's turf. Does he expect the wilderness to be a fenced off playground?

Assuming his story is true, are you saying that if you're camping on the wolf's turf and it attacks, then you're supposed to just be good prey and let it eat you??

you stand a better chance of being attacked by a band of raging lesbians than you do by a healthy wolf in the woods. i've searched and found only one or two cases in north america of attacks by what appears to be a healthy wolf, and those one or two isolated incidents were connected to wolves that were feeding on garbage and had lost their fear of people. this one in the story is questionable in that nowhere is it mentioned (nor is it found on the internet) that the wolf in question was examined by a specialist to determine if it was sick or healthy. farley mowat must be spinning in his grave over the chop***k's story.

[Nagishkaw 510]

Charles, I agree with you. Wolves are frightened of people and I have always heard that any so called wolf attacks on humans are just pure myth and legend.

[Scott & Lai 12]

"In 2001, Sundles killed a wolf he said had attacked him and his wife while they were camping in the Idaho wilderness."

You know... I'm trying to have sympathy... but when you're camping, you're on the wolf's turf. Does he expect the wilderness to be a fenced off playground?

Assuming his story is true, are you saying that if you're camping on the wolf's turf and it attacks, then you're supposed to just be good prey and let it eat you??

you stand a better chance of being attacked by a band of raging lesbians than you do by a healthy wolf in the woods. i've searched and found only one or two cases in north america of attacks by what appears to be a healthy wolf, and those one or two isolated incidents were connected to wolves that were feeding on garbage and had lost their fear of people. this one in the story is questionable in that nowhere is it mentioned (nor is it found on the internet) that the wolf in question was examined by a specialist to determine if it was sick or healthy. farley mowat must be spinning in his grave over the chop***k's story.

Granted, but I said, "assuming his story is true..."

[Caladan 19]

"In 2001, Sundles killed a wolf he said had attacked him and his wife while they were camping in the Idaho wilderness."

You know... I'm trying to have sympathy... but when you're camping, you're on the wolf's turf. Does he expect the wilderness to be a fenced off playground?

Assuming his story is true, are you saying that if you're camping on the wolf's turf and it attacks, then you're supposed to just be good prey and let it eat you??

What a silly question. Of course not. But if you run into a wolf in the wilderness, you hardly have grounds to whine and complain that there are wolves when you see them where they're *supposed* to be by law. You have a complaint if the wolf is in downtown harassing the schoolbus. You don't have a complaint if you go camping in the backcountry and you see animals in the backcountry. It's like me complaining that there are deer in Pennsylvania forests. No sh!t, Sherlock.

This doesn't mean you don't defend yourself against an attack, but whining 'omg I saw a wolf when I went into wolf country there are too many wolves' just makes you look like a whiner.

I'd be willing to place money that he wasn't attacked. Healthy wolves avoid people; sick wolves hide.... so... he found a partially tame wolf in the wilderness and it turned on him? Mmmhhmmm.

[JoeMama 0]

you stand a better chance of being attacked by a band of raging lesbians than you do by a healthy wolf in the woods.

Rosie O'Donnell and crew are headed your way! They're pissed off and armed with broomstick handles! Don't know if poisoned balls will work for ya on this one!

Edited April 23, 2007 by altimixdj