WOLF: Kills are too costly

It has recently been reported that it is costing Idaho taxpayers $400,000 a year to fund a program to shoot wolves from helicopters in an effort to save the dwindling numbers of elk in central Idaho. Twenty wolves have recently been killed in this manner. I hope that this number represents a small fraction of the actual numbers so killed; otherwise it is costing us $20,000 per wolf.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission, apparently in conjunction with the feds, reintroduced wolves into Idaho. This reintroduction program also cost Idaho taxpayers. Why should we pay for their incompetence?

Someone in Fish and Game had the ultimate authority, so let’s send him the bill. It won’t happen, of course, but if bureaucracies had to pay for their mistakes, there would be fewer mistakes. Although the wolf issue is important in Idaho, the same type of problem exists on a much larger scale in Washington, D.C.

BOB RIDOUT

Hayden