I have voiced my feelings in the past over concern for the delisting of wolves and the strong probability of over hunting ensuing by every Tom, Dick, and Mary with a gun. At the same time, I strongly support legislation that affords farmers and ranchers the right to protect their livestock, their very livelihood, from wolf predation. Plus, programs that have been in place to compensate ranchers for livestock killed by wolves are not only essential, they are properly due. Now, with the creation of a federal wolf predation compensation program The Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation group that agreed to compensate ranchers for livestock losses to wolves, has announced they will no longer do so. Instead, they hope to use that money to help ranchers learn to better prevent wolf predation. That is easier said than done. As any rancher will tell you, dealing with a wild predator is not akin to a Disney movie, “playing nice” and co-existing with wolves is not practical or probable. To expect ranchers to “just learn to live with wolves” is like expecting people to ignore an angry pit bull on a playground. It just isn’t going to happen.