A Wyoming hunter who reportedly ran over a gray wolf with a snowmobile, taped the creature’s mouth shut, took a picture with it inside a local bar and then shot it to death behind the tavern has ignited calls for stiffer penalties in such an egregious case of animal abuse.
Cody Roberts, 42, is at the center of the uproar after being ticketed and fined a couple of hundred dollars for illegally possessing the wolf while it was still alive – but so far going unpunished for the manner in which he is said to have killed the animal.
Meanwhile, Wyoming wildlife authorities have kept much of the case hidden under a veil of secrecy, arguing that records on wolves taken in the state are not matter of public record under laws there.
But the news outlet WyoFile.com reported that the laws only protect the privacy of people “legally taking a wolf” within the state and therefore may not apply in the case of Roberts, who stands accused of flagrantly and cruelly violating hunting ethics.
Regardless, in a statement to WyoFile, the president of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums – Dan Ashe – summarized the typical reaction to the actions attributed to Roberts.
“In view of this, I think every state should be reviewing their statutes to make sure that this kind of cruelty is punishable,” Ashe said.
Elsewhere, as of Tuesday, a Change.org petition demanding that Roberts be made to answer felony animal cruelty charges had drawn more than 55,000 signatures.
The news outlet Cowboy State Daily – citing multiple sources with knowledge of the case whose accounts have not been substantially challenged – reported that Roberts ran a wolf down with a snowmobile and incapacitated the animal on 29 February near his home town of Daniel in Sublette county.
It is legal to kill wolves in that area of Wyoming, which removed the animals from its endangered species list in 2017. Yet instead of killing the wolf on the spot, the Cowboy State Daily recently reported that Roberts hauled the animal to the Green River Bar. Photos taken at the bar showed the wolf’s mouth taped shut.
Roberts finally brought the wolf behind the bar building and shot it to death before an anonymous tip to the Wyoming game and fish department brought him under the scrutiny of investigators, according to the Cowboy State Daily’s reporting.
A statement from a game and fish department spokesperson that provided details of the wolf’s killing stopped short of linking Roberts to the case. The statement only said that an individual had been ticketed for illicitly bringing a live wolf to a business in Daniel before euthanizing the animal – an offense that carries a $250 fine.
Nonetheless, county court records show Roberts received a wildlife violation on 29 February, the Cowboy State Daily reported.
The Cowboy State Daily by Saturday had obtained and published a shocking photo of a man identified as Roberts holding a beer can in his left hand, smiling while wrapping his right arm around a dejected-looking wolf. In the photo, the wolf’s mouth is shut by red tape wrapped around its snout.
The director of Wymong’s game and fish department on Monday bristled at the notion that the agency was being unduly secretive or demonstrating leniency in the case. The official told the Cowboy State Daily the department was balancing the public’s right to information with Wyoming laws meant to protect the identities of people who legally hunt wolves and help keep its wildlife population manageable.
However, that stance has done little to dissuade animal rights advocates from calling out Roberts and demanding that the trucking company owner be made to face much harsher consequences than he has.
“Roberts’ actions clearly warrant a punishment more severe than the $250 ticket he received,” Scott Edwards, the general counsel for American Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, said in a statement. “Such an anemic response on the part of law enforcement will be seen by some as tacit approval of his crime and can only motivate other like-minded individuals driven by hatred of wolves to engage in similar, repugnant behavior.”
Attempts to contact Roberts for comment were not immediately successful. In posts that were no longer accessible on Tuesday, a user identified as a relative of Roberts wrote: “I love and support you Cody.”
The user also wrote the celebratory expression “woohoo” in a post that shared a link to a Cowboy State Daily article headlined: “Wyoming Animal Cruelty Laws Don’t Apply to Alleged Wolf Torment Case”.
As the New York Post noted, while some replies to those posts described their horror at the allegations against Roberts, many were supportive, including one which read: “I’m with him!!! I’ll bring the duct tape.”
