The right to snowmobile over wildlife could soon be explicitly protected in Wyoming

This story was first published by WyoFile on Sept. 4, 2024.

CHEYENNE, Wyoming (Idaho Capital Sun) — Residents who enjoy snowmobiling over wildlife could see their wintertime recreational pursuit explicitly protected by law if a draft bill headed for a legislative committee advances unchanged.

Running over animals classified as predators with snowmobiles is already legal in Wyoming. That status came into question, however, after a Daniel, Wyoming, man struck an adolescent wolf with a snowmobile, muzzled and collared it and paraded it through a Sublette County bar for hours.

The Legislature formed an ad hoc panel — the Treatment of Predators Working Group — to study changes in the law that could deter the behavior. The group met for the last time on Wednesday, and they walked away from the online meeting agreeing to draft bill language that makes it clear running over animals is OK, provided the creatures are dispatched swiftly after being struck.

“Any person who intentionally injures or disables a predatory animal … by use of an automotive vehicle, motor-propelled wheeled vehicle, or vehicle designed for travel over snow shall upon inflicting the injury or disability immediately use all reasonable efforts to kill the injured or disabled predatory animal,” the draft bill reads.

Failing to “immediately use all reasonable efforts to kill” a run-down animal would constitute animal cruelty, the legislation states.

Currently, there are carve-outs in the animal cruelty statutes for predatory animals, which include wolves in 85% of Wyoming and coyotes, red fox, stray cats, jackrabbits, porcupines, raccoons and striped skunks throughout the state.

The proposed statute change would live in the Wyoming Criminal Code. Another draft bill containing almost identical language, that would instead alter the laws governing the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, did not move forward from the panel.

Wyoming’s livestock industry leaders opposed to making changes that would inhibit predator control

Although there was public pressure on the working group to also draft a bill prohibiting running over wildlife with snowmobiles, the livestock industry opposed making any changes that it asserted would inhibit predator control.

“I’ve talked with a number of livestock producers across the state — in particular, sheep producers — who have said that they view it as one of their most effective tools,” Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association told WyoFile in July.

Gov. Mark Gordon also encouraged members to have “narrow, focused conversations on wanton animal cruelty” — and to not interfere with predator control.

In addition to being used for livestock protection, running over coyotes, foxes and other species is a recreational activity that some participants see as another form of hunting.

The working group — a mix of lawmakers and non-elected government and private-sector officials — now passes the baton to the Legislature’s Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee. Members will meet at the end of the month, when they are scheduled to consider the recommended legislation at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 30 in Cheyenne.

There was talk of nixing language about snowmobiles and motorized vehicles and broadening the bill during the working group’s final meeting.

“I would love to move pulling that vehicle-specific stuff out, but I think I have some things that I have to work through,” said Jess Johnson, the Wyoming Wildlife Federation’s government affairs director.

Removing the vehicle language would require adding in some exemptions for trapping, she said. “Maybe that’s something I can bring in October,” Johnson said, “if we move this bill forward.”

Earlier, soon-retiring Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Brian Nesvik posed an argument for leaving the motorized vehicle language in.

“If we remove this stuff related to vehicles, it would then include aircraft,” Nesvik said. “That’s my concern.”

Aerial gunning, especially of coyotes, is a routine component of predator control in Wyoming, and elsewhere in the American West. It’d be problematic, Nesvik said, to require aerial gunners to land if they know an animal has been wounded in order to make a “reasonable effort” to kill it.

“We don’t want to criminalize otherwise legal behavior,” he said.

Wyoming residents speak out on running over animals with snowmobiles

About a half-hour of the working group’s meeting was devoted to hearing from the public. Roughly a dozen people spoke, mostly Wyoming residents. Every commenter except for one — Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation lobbyist Brett Moline — encouraged the lawmakers and non-elected members to take a step further and end Wyoming’s embrace of running over animals with snowmobiles.

“I sympathize with a rancher that’s defending livestock from predators, absolutely,” Jackson filmmaker Shane Moore told the working group. “But that’s a far different issue than allowing the public to joyride on snowmobiles and torture wildlife legally on public lands, which is precisely what’s happening.”

“It seems Wyoming will be allowing wildlife torture to continue with motorized killing if either of these provisions passes — as long as it’s not prolonged,” he added.

Pinedale resident Kelly Ravner also encouraged the lawmakers to take another step.

“The low-hanging fruit is that you could make ‘whacking’ — the torturing and killing of animals with motor vehicles — illegal,” Ravner said. “Whacking is not fair-chase. It is not hunting, and it has no place in actual wildlife management.”