Manage Our Wolves Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bill. I have to say, in my 28 years in this body, I have never seen so much nonsense, misinformation, and propaganda put out on a bill as is being put out on this one. We followed the Endangered Species Act. We did what was said. The scientists said that we have recovered, and they delisted the wolves. These were scientists who did it; it wasn't any politician.

The politics on this, you had a group out there, these extreme environmentalists and others who have captured our party, that went to a judge in Washington, D.C., who has no idea what is going on at all, and convinced that judge that the wolves had not recovered because they had not been reestablished all the way to Des Moines, Iowa.

Do you want some wolves in Des Moines, Iowa? I don't think so. There were never any wolves in Des Moines, Iowa, in the first place.

So we followed the law. The Fish and Wildlife Service is on our side. They delisted these wolves. The DNR in Minnesota was managing the wolves and doing a good job before the court intervened politically.

I don't agree with the DNR. I have very seldom got along with the DNR in Minnesota. This is one time where they were doing the right thing. They did a good job, and the court stopped them.

It was politics; it wasn't science. So this nonsense that somehow or another that we are politically doing this is not true.

We have more wolves in my district than any other district in the United States. We have twice as many wolves as was required to get the wolves delisted. But that wasn't good enough.

So I say to all you folks who think this is such a great idea: We have a lot of extra wolves. We will send them to your district. We will let them eat some of your fancy little dogs and see how long that will go before your constituents demand that you do something about it.

My neighbor has had four of his cattle killed in the last 2 years. They killed his German shepherd dog and ripped it apart.

Are you telling me that this is not a problem?

When we had the population under control, we didn't have these kinds of problems. So this idea that somehow or another you are on the righteous side of science and all that stuff is complete nonsense. I will have the gentleman come up to my district, and he can see what is going on.

So we followed the law. We have the Federal agencies that are responsible for this that are on our side. It wasn't us who screwed this up; it was that court in D.C., and that judge has no clue about what is going on.

Mr. Speaker, I tell Members to support this bill.

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