Howling For Wolves

We have a generous donor who has agreed to match all 2021 Give to the Max contributions this year, up to $40,000! Help us double our fundraising so we can continue to work together for the benefit of all wolves.

Our mission: Protecting the wolf for future generations.

Howling For Wolves, a Minnesota-based non-profit wolf advocacy organization, was formed in 2012 to educate the public and policymakers about the gray wolf’s vital and necessary role to maintain biodiversity and healthy natural habitat. We work to ensure the long-term survival of the gray wolf by fostering the public’s understanding and tolerance for this magnificent species and her pack.

Howling For Wolves began in 2012, when the wolf was removed from the Endangered Species List and a trophy wolf hunt was rushed through the Minnesota State Legislature. This occurred despite the vast majority of Minnesotans (79%) agreeing that the wolf should be protected for future generations and 79% said “No” to a proposed wolf hunt by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Even the Minnesota DNR reported the gray wolf population dropped by 24-26% following the first hunt. 

After three consecutive wolf hunts, federal courts returned the gray wolf in the Great Lakes region to the Endangered Species List on December 19, 2014. Minnesota wolves were then  again listed as "threatened" and enjoyed those protections until January 2021. During this time, Howling For Wolves worked to increase the public's awareness of the need to protect wolves, advocated to ban wolf hunting and developed wolf protection policies including obtaining funding for livestock producers' nonlethal prevention methods that avoid conflicts with wolves.

Today, the Minnesota wolf and all wolves of the lower 48 states no longer have federal protections.  In Minnesota, this means that wolves can be killed "to protect property" in most of the state (lower 2/3rd of state). Lethal options are available to farmers for wolf-livestock conflicts in Northern Minnesota and USDA-APHIS (Wildlife Services) routinely kills entire packs of wolves for allegations of conflicts with livestock. They kill approximately 200 wolves per year in Minnesota alone. 

Protecting Wolves Into the Future:

Howling For Wolves is dedicated to nonlethal wolf plans that protect wolves and increase tolerance for them. We push the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to track all wolf killing.  State law that requires the DNR to track all known wolf deaths since 2014. Without federal protections even more attention from the DNR is needed to monitor the welfare of the wolf. We advocate for all nonlethal wolf plans because killing wolves disrupts wolf packs and creates unpredictable problems for the wolf and for livestock producers.

We support proposed laws to protect wolves such as eliminating snaring and requiring permission to trap on private lands.

The wolf has been aggressively killed for centuries.  And new research has shown that with reduced protections for the wolf, comes more illegal wolf killing. Howling for wolves is organizing nationally to advocate for returning federal protections for all wolves in the lower 48 states (www.relistwolves.org). We know that much more must be done in order for wolves to survive without these protections. There is simply too much illegal and legal wolf killing that occurs without federal protections. So we are advocating on multiple fronts to relist wolves nationally.

We oppose wolf hunting, baiting, and trapping. Learn more and get involved at HowlingForWolves.org