Dear John,

We need your help to stop a Major Threat: The Wolf Compensation Fund bill (HB 2631-3) may get a vote in committee this Thursday. The bill proposes a compensation multiplier of five times the fair market value of livestock or working dogs injured or killed by wolves. If passed, a living cow worth $2,000 would skyrocket in value to $10,000 when it is killed by a wolf. We need to let our lawmakers know that we do not support the Wolf Compensation Fund bill (HB 2631). Will you write an email asking your state representative to vote NO on the Wolf Compensation Fund bill before Thursday?

Wolves are an iconic animal, and as keystone predators they play an important role. Yet, they have faced decades of extinction risk from humans. Trouble for wolves began 80 years ago with wolf bounties. By the 1940s, all the gray wolves that had called Oregon home were killed off. Fifty years later, they started to make a comeback as they migrated west from the northern Rockies. 

The Wolf Compensation Fund was created with the goal of promoting coexistence and tolerance. It was a good first step toward supporting their ongoing recovery. However, bills threatening their comeback, like HB 2631-3, are continuously introduced in Salem by anti-wildlife interests and their political allies. If we value our native wildlife, we need to speak up on their behalf.

A five-time compensation multiplier as proposed by this bill undermines the purpose of the Wolf Compensation Fund and is simply perverse. If anything, this bill would provide less of an incentive for properly caring for and protecting livestock and working dogs. Please join us in urging our lawmakers to vote NO on this bill. 

Thank you,

Julia DeGraw

Coalition Director, OLCV