While the wolf-loving responses in the comments are predictable, it is worth reading a little about the experiences with wolves in Russia. Hint -- there's not the same sentimental love affair with wolves there that environmentalists have here. Wolves eat lots of livestock, have been known to attack humans in rural Russia (something that is said never to have happened in America,) and spread diseases. Who'da thunk it?
While most of us have come to terms with wolf re-introduction, it is more than high time for active control to begin, including a hunting season. It is too bad that those in favor of wolf re-introduction haven't kept their end of the bargain, and have instead chosen to use the courts to stop the active process of de-listing. One wonders how successful they would have been in pushing through re-introduction if they had told us that they wouldn't hold to the recovery benchmarks that they themselves set?
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Update:
Ed Kemmick asks the question about documentation of wolf attacks in Russia. A simple internet search reveals a few links -- consider the source on each. For instance, while this is a very interesting article, the inclusion of attacks by domesticated or confined wolves seems like unhelpful piling on. What does seem clear is that wolves have historically been much more aggressive toward humans in the Old World than here in the New, at least during the time of documented history.
The thesis that the peasantry was unarmed throughout history in the Old World whereas Americans have been armed is a reasonable one, and is a good argument for a hunting season plus expanded ability of ranchers to eliminate predators on sight. The more wolves fear humans, the more they will stay away from us and our food.
There is no quick way to summarize the historical evidence other than to say that when humans are not seen as an active threat to them, wolves can become aggressive, especially if they are hungry. The Wikipedia article and list of documented attacks is pretty extensive and worth reading in its entirety.
I seem to remember reading a modern wolf advocate stating that all of the "big, bad, wolf" stories of Europe were based solely in the fact that man is a competing predator, and therefore wants to demonize and eliminate his competition. The more I read, the more it is clear that the big, bad, wolf of Europe was feared -- at least in part -- because of very real human experience of being its prey.
As our wolf population expands in numbers and range, to scoff at the European and Asian experience with the intermingling of wolves and humans appears to amount to willful ignorance based in ideology.
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Oh, and the Russians have a great, environmentally friendly, all-natural solution to excess wolves...
