Journalist Jeremy Miller explores the mentality behind predator and trophy hunting in this fascinating article about the the history of federal governments loophole in the ESA called the McKittrick policy, which has allowed hunter’s to kill endangered species with no consequence.  He uses Echo, the Grand Canyon wolf as an example and describes Natalie Ertz, WLD’s executive directors personal experience in her tragic story.

 

‘…Historically, the most visible motive, and the one that best explains the excess of killing, is a type of fear: theriophobia. Fear of the beast. Fear of the beast as an irrational, violent, insatiable creature. Fear of the projected beast in oneself. . . . At the heart of theriophobia is the fear of one’s own nature. In its headiest manifestations theriophobia is projected onto a single animal, the animal becomes a scapegoat, and it is annihilated. That is what happened to the wolf in America…..’

 

Read the article in Harper’s Magazine:

http://harpers.org/archive/2017/01/bounty-hunters/