Boycott Wyoming?
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
By Henry Sweets
Jackson Hole, Wyo.- Amidst the heated debate being waged on the Internet over Wyoming’s wolf management policy, a California woman posted a thread on Yellowstone.net urging tourists to stop spending money in Wyoming towns on their way to Yellowstone National Park. Another poster to the site is championing a boycott of the entire state.
The movement attracted media attention nationwide, including articles in the Billings Gazette, by The Associated Press and in The New York Times. Pretty soon, Vicky Frangos, who started the original thread, had earned herself a reputation as a national wolf lover and zealot.
It wasn’t the reaction Frangos was expecting.
“I’m not a fanatical wolf person, who stands out there for eight hours with a big scope, so it was kind of funny for me when I read ‘wolf fan’ [in the Billings Gazette],” Frangos said.
Frangos, who grew up in Billings, said she thinks of herself as a Yellowstone National Park fan who expects animals to be treated with respect. She wants the public to understand that she is simply encouraging people to spend their money in Montana’s gateway towns rather than towns like Cody, Wyo.
Frangos
said those who heed to the call would send a message to Wyoming that its wolf management plan allows for the unethical treatment of animals. She would like to see Wyoming’s policy resemble Idaho or Montana’s. “The thing that angers me the most is that the Wyoming wolf policy says that anyone can go out and shoot a wolf, and they can leave them to rot,” she said.
One comment posted under the Billings Gazette article online reads: “The hunters shooting wolves would never leave it to rot. That is a prime wolf rug.”
Another comment, echoing the sentiments of many others posted to the paper’s website, read: “Put wolves and grizzlies in her [Frangos’] front yard. Bus them critters on down her way, then we can change the tune of her whine.”
Other comments suggested that Wyoming tourism would increase, because Montanans would travel there to shoot wolves.
A recent letter to the Salt Lake Tribune from a Utah resident said, “I have no political power to influence [Wyoming’s] management of wolves. However, I do have the power of the pocketbook. I now choose not to recreate in Wyoming.”
Cara Eastwood, the Press Secretary for Governor Dave Freudenthal, said the governor’s office and the state tourism office have received some phone calls about the wolf issue. Although some of the callers said they planned to not spend money in Wyoming, those types of calls pale in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of phone calls from people interested in traveling in Wyoming, Eastwood said.
“Their perspective is being heard, and they’re free to express their beliefs however they need to, and if that means not coming to Wyoming, they’re obviously free to make that choice,” she said. “But there are plenty of people who still want to come to Wyoming.”
Photo by Andrew WyattThis cardboard box derby entry called ‘Life Liberty and the Pursuit’ featured a detailed replica of the White House, all the current Presidential candidates and a few Secret Service stand-ins.PERMALINK:
Boycott Wyoming? | Planet JH News Article: General News
Leave a Comment
Please limit your letter to 300 words, sign it and give us the name of your town.
