Wyoming Coalition for Animal Protection

06/06/2026

Calling all members of our southeast Wyoming community! If you're free on June 12, consider showing up for wildlife at the Jelm Mountain Wildlife Guzzler Repair Volunteer Project with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Bureau of Land Management! The project helps improve long-term water availability for local wildlife through fencing replacement, repairs, sediment cleanout, and general site rehabilitation. Find more details and sign up here:

LARAMIE — The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is seeking volunteers to assist with wildlife water guzzler repairs on the Jelm Wildlife Habitat Management Area on Friday, June 12. The volunteer-driven effort will help improve long-term water availability for local wildlife through fencing replacem...

06/01/2026

The public comment window for Wyoming’s 2026 wolf hunting season is officially open, and your input is needed before the June 10 deadline!

Wyoming Game & Fish is proposing to cut the hunting quota in half due to a severe canine distemper outbreak. But a 50% cut isn't enough when our wolves face a multi-front crisis. We need a temporary, 1-year freeze on the hunt.

Here is what's at stake:

Adults carry the cure: Pup survival is at a heartbreaking 37%. The surviving adults are the most critical assets on the landscape because they hold the genetic immunity needed to rebuild the packs.

The "Predator Zone" loophole: Lowering the quota does nothing for the 85% of the state where wolves are classified as pests and can be killed 24/7. Surviving wolves trying to disperse will face an unregulated death trap.

The CWD threat: Chronic Wasting Disease was just detected on the National Elk Refuge. Robust wolf packs are a natural defense to selectively remove sick elk and slow the spread.

We are at the absolute, federally mandated floor: The virus cut breeding pairs down to exactly 10 in the Trophy Zone in the northwest of the state. 10 breeding pairs is the minimum, so there is zero room for error. Less than 10 breeding pairs triggers a federal review under the Endangered Species Act that could result in emergency relisting.

Wildlife management should prioritize caution during an unprecedented disease crisis.

💻 How to take action: It takes less than two minutes. Submit your comment online in support of a 1-year pause on the hunt before the portal closes on June 10: https://wgfd.wyo.gov/get-involved/public-input (scroll down and click "Comment on Chapter 47").

05/30/2026

If you're against the reintroduction of cyanide bombs on public lands, use the Center for Biological Diversity's comment form to tell the Bureau of Land Management to reinstate the ban on these devices that have proven fully capable of injuring and killing non-target wildlife, pets, and children: https://act.biologicaldiversity.org/ZwnDMuMwTEaCQRtHbQoKzw2?

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management just quietly walked back its ban on M-44s: sodium-cyanide-filled devices that harm people and kill wildlife and pets. Tell the agency to reinstate the ban on public lands.

05/07/2026

The House has passed a Farm Bill (that we are calling the Factory Farm Bill) and it's one of the most damaging pieces of legislation for animals in years.

What's at stake:

The bill includes the Save Our Bacon Act, which would nullify voter-approved animal welfare laws in at least 15 states (including California's Prop 12 and Massachusetts' Question 3, which require that pigs, egg-laying hens, and veal calves have enough space to move). These laws were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023 after years of legal challenges from the pork industry. Congress is trying to override both.

It would also strip every state of the authority to set humane standards for products sold within their borders, no matter what their voters decided.

Farmers who already invested in higher-welfare systems to meet those standards would be penalized for doing the right thing.

And the bill also serves up a provision repealing a 30-year federal ban on taxpayer subsidies for the mink fur industry (added with no public hearings and no debate, redirecting public money to prop up a declining trade that serves foreign luxury markets).

The House passed it 224-200, largely along party lines. The Senate hasn't voted yet.

Our Senators Barrasso and Lummis have the power to help remove these provisions or oppose this bill entirely. But they need to hear from constituents first!

📞 Senator Barrasso: 202-224-6441 | barrasso.senate.gov/contact/contact-form/
📞 Senator Lummis: 202-224-3424 |lummis.senate.gov/contact/contact-form/

Call or email them today. Ask them to oppose the Factory Farm Bill and demand removal of the federal preemption language and the mink subsidy provision before any Senate vote.

05/07/2026

A bill that would have gutted the Endangered Species Act was pulled from a House floor vote last month due to lack of support. Wyoming's wildlife can breathe a little easier.

The ESA Amendments Act (H.R. 1897) would have required regulators to weigh economic and national security interests when deciding whether to protect a species from extinction, while blocking consideration of future threats like climate change. It would also have weakened habitat protections and limited the legal tools used to hold government accountable.

The whooping crane, one of North America's most endangered birds, is exactly the kind of species the ESA was built to protect. Measures like this lose momentum when elected officials hear from the people they represent. Your voice matters! 📢

04/16/2026

Last October, a Cheyenne man was found with 101 neglected animals and 22 dead animals on his property. He was a serial offender with 33 prior animal-related citations. Last week, he pleaded guilty to just four misdemeanors.

How does that happen? Under Wyoming's current felony cruelty statute, prosecutors must prove an abuser INTENDED to cause suffering. Proving what went through the perpetrator's mind is a standard so difficult to meet that county attorneys may be routinely downgrading charges to misdemeanors rather than attempting it.

WYCAP volunteers see this pattern play out repeatedly across the state, in hoarding cases, neglect cases, and worse.

WYCAP board member Dr. Donal O'Toole published a letter in Cowboy State Daily last week calling on Wyoming's legislature to update the state's cruelty statutes. Reforms worth considering include 1) removing the intent requirement, 2) permanently barring convicted abusers from owning animals, 3) requiring psychological evaluations for cruelty convictions, 4) granting veterinarians civil immunity for good-faith cruelty reports, and 5) recognizing animals as sentient beings rather than property.

Read Dr. O'Toole's full letter here: https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/04/09/letter-to-the-editor-proving-felony-cruelty-to-animals-should-not-require-a-body-count/

04/09/2026

A state court judge has accepted the plea agreement of Cody Roberts, sentencing him to 18 months of probation and $1,432 in fines. He will serve no jail time.

The details of Roberts' case are disturbing. Roberts captured a live wolf (a young female), subjected her to extended suffering, and displayed her publicly before ultimately killing her. For this grotesque behavior, Roberts receives merely probation and a fine.

For those of us working to end animal cruelty in Wyoming, this outcome is painful. It reflects a persistent gap in how our state treats cruelty involving wild animals, particularly predators. The young wolf had no protection from what was done to her, and today's outcome does little to discourage similar acts in the future.

WYCAP will keep advocating for stronger wildlife protections and real enforcement in Wyoming. Animals deserve better, and so do Wyoming's values of stewardship and respect for the land and its creatures.

Roberts will avoid prison time if he stays out of trouble while on probation for animal cruelty.

04/07/2026

It's International Beaver Day today, we’re highlighting an often-overlooked ally in the face of drought and wildfire: the beaver.

Land managers and researchers across the West have shown that beaver-built wetlands can lower fire intensity and act as natural firebreaks, leaving green areas untouched while surrounding landscapes burn. In a state like Wyoming, facing low snowpack and heightened risk of wildfire this year, supporting beavers could benefit wildlife, the long-term health of our rivers and forests, and our communities. Yet there are no bag limits when trapping beavers across most of Wyoming, and no mandatory reporting to understand harvest levels.

Thank you to Faith Williams at Wyoming Untrapped for a thoughtful perspective in Wyofile on how protecting beavers can impact our own resilience: https://wyofile.com/in-a-changing-west-resilience-is-already-on-the-landscape/.