Cody Roberts torment wolf at bar in Wyoming

Small Wyoming towns people’s mentality never cease to amaze me. Don’t get me wrong, I love my time in Rock River, which is very small. Friendly people where everyone knows each other, and look after one another. Wyoming is a very beautiful place, unfortunately it has bad apples, like everywhere else. But this is the second time i am hearing of someone shooting a wolf, to parade them in front of people, in Wyoming. The previous horrendous animal parade, was in Jackson Hole, years ago, with a man parading a dead wolf, tied to the hood of it’s car. I mean, what is it, with doing this, people just don’t have anything better to do there, than to torment animals, for the world to see how pathetic they really are ?

A lot of men’s and women’s mentality in rancher’s state just hate this idea of wolves even existing. They still think, in 2024, that wolves will get your kids ( I mean honestly, when was the last time a wolf killed a child ?) Will eat your pets (Because coyotes, bird of prey, wild dogs, sometimes will attack and kill cats, that people allowed to freely, unsupervised, roam outside.) Wolves have gotten a bad reputation over many years, just like sharks, pitbulls etc. Ranchers hates wolves because they are a “threat” to their livestock, that they allow grazing, unsupervised, over hundreds of acres of borrowed land.

Apparently this guy who called himself a hunter, yes, hunter, thought it was a good idea to run over a wild animal with his snowmobile, just to take the injured animal to a local bar, the Green River bar, and torment the animal, with it’s snout tape shut, for everyone to see. He even had his picture taken, inside a local bar, with the injured animal, and then shot it dead, behind the tavern. The bar owner even allowed this despicable, sociopathic behavior in his establishment. He thought nothing wrong of this doing, from a so called hunter. What a great example for the world to see, in these times, where news of animal abuse, travel on the internet.

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. He basically got a slap on the wrist, because it was just a wolf. A wolf that acquired a bad reputation for the most idiotic reasons. 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. Well of course they are not, those kills have to be a secret at all cost, because we wouldn’t want to know who kill the wolves, because of wolves advocates.

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. Is this an ethical hunting thing to do to a wild animal ? Torturing, tormenting them, before killing them, while they are at our mercy ? Is this a nice example to set, for other people, thinking it’s okay to do this, you will only get a slap on your wrist, until you do it again. It’s just an animal, who’s life doesn’t matter, you know. It probably did not have a family, out there.

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 77,000 signatures. I signed it, will you ?

The 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 in 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. The owner of the bar, did not think anything wrong of his doing, letting Cody parade the injured animal, in front of everyone, before killing it.

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. Well i guess, beside the few bad apples, Wyoming has good people that managed to do the right thing, and I am thankful for it. We need more people like that. If you witness someone torturing, tormenting, killing a wild animal in this manner, it is absolutely our duty to report it to the right authorities. Do not let people get away, doing such a despicable act, against a wild animal, no matter the species. They all deserve our help and it is our responsibility to do so. I urge you to do the right thing if you witness such a despicable act towards a wild animal,

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 killing the animal – an offense that carries a laughable $250 fine. I mean with a fine like that, might as well just not fine at all. That is not going to discourage anyone for repeating the offense. County court records show Roberts received a wildlife violation on 29 February. So basically, he received a slap on his wrist, like nothing even happened.

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 popular photo you see, posted everywhere, and featured as the main image on this blog post, with the hunter, smiling with the poor animal at his side, with his snout, taped extremely tightly around it’s snout.

The director of Wyoming’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 under control from human, because we decide so.

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.