The following is a statement from Jill Fritz, director of the Keep Michigan Wolves Protected campaign, in response to today’s Mlive.com article, “Cattle farmer John Koski, divisive symbol in Michigan wolf hunt, to plead in animal neglect case”

“While it is encouraging that Upper Peninsula farmer John Koski has finally been held accountable for the neglect of his animals, we are disappointed that the abuses at his farm had been allowed to continue for so long. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources was aware that Koski was not properly disposing of dead livestock on his farm—thereby attracting predators to the property—yet they provided ongoing assistance and compensation payments in violation of their own guidelines, and allowed incidents at that location to skew statistics on wolf-livestock conflicts across the U.P. Because of this, we urge the DNR remove his depredations from their statistical analysis so Michigan residents can get a true picture of livestock losses that were used as a justification for the 2013 open season on wolves.
 
It is outrageous that Michigan’s wolves were used as a scapegoat at the expense of Michigan taxpayers. The fact remains that our state’s first wolf hunt came about from trumped-up charges against these shy and elusive creatures, and was supported by misstatements and scare stories about alleged incidents that have nothing to do with commonly-known wolf behavior.
 
The DNR’s dismal track record and poor stewardship of taxpayers’ money in the Koski case should have voters asking themselves, ‘Can we trust the DNR and the Natural Resources Commission with important wildlife decisions, especially involving wolves?’”