A new twist to the sad story of the Mexican wolf reintroduction program has surfaced (see EF!J December-January '99). Although not widely publicized, new information suggests that the wolf killings are not random acts of wildlife-hating loose cannons but are an organized campaign to sabotage the federal wolf recovery program.
In early April 1998, when Patricia Wolff, director of New West Research and longtime wolf advocate, was visiting incarcerated animal rights and Earth First! activist Rod Coronado, he spoke to her about Jody "Chance" Cooper (or Predator's Predator as he calls himself), a fellow inmate who was offered money to kill endangered Mexican wolves. Stunned, Wolff asked Coronado to arrange a telephone interview with him so she could get more information. She took this unconfirmed information to US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) law enforcement officers but didn't receive any attention.
Cooper is no stranger to firearms and bounties. In February 1995, he was convicted in Colfax County, New Mexico, of aggravated assault and illegal possession of a firearm after "allegedly shooting at someone's feet to make them dance." Furthermore, Arizona Game and Fish launched an undercover investigation into a possible illegal mountain lion hunt by Cooper in March of 1996. During the investigation, Cooper, who didn't have a hunting guide license, led an undercover agent on a lion hunt and accepted payment. Wolff was informed by two federal probation officers that Cooper had been killing mountain lions for Arizona ranchers when he was busted in 1996. The list of Cooper's criminal convictions goes on.
In late April, a few weeks after her visit with Coronado, news broke that a reintroduced wolf had been shot and killed. On May 8, Wolff secretly recorded a phone interview with Cooper. Here are the most interesting segments of the tape:
Patricia Wolff (PW): ... I've got lots of hunter friends here and...well... here's the word out... and you can tell me if this is right or not... So what I've been hearing is that some hunters are being offered money to kill the released wolves... And I'm wondering if you have ever been... um... if anyone has ever made such an offer to you... Is this true?
Chance Cooper (CC): Well... I'll give you... how is this: They offered me $35,000 in cash to kill 'em all.
PW: Who made that offer?
CC: I can't tell you.
PW: Okay.
CC: But it's got to do with the goddamn cattlemen for sure.
PW: It's got to do with what?
CC: The cattlemen... My dad... see, my family's been here since the 1890s... We've been in Arizona longer than most people have, and the wolves was always here... It was never a goddamn big issue...
PW: Well, was it a person or an organization that made you the offer?
CC: A person.
PW: A person... Uh huh... So this was from someone who was a cattleman?
CC: It came from New Mexico.
PW: What part of New Mexico?
CC: Western New Mexico.
PW: Western... like Catron County?
CC: Exactly.
PW: Okay.
CC: The sheriff of course hates my guts.
PW: So what were the terms of the offer? You were offered $35,000...
CC: To kill 'em all.
PW: Yeah...
CC: But I'm not gonna do it... I like the wolves... We have such an elk population that they starve in the winter... And they placed those wolves in a bad spot... They should have goddamn taken 'em down to Blue River Road... where the fish hatchery is... They should of released 'em down in that area.
PW: Well do you know of anyone else who's been offered money?
CC: Probably my brother has.
PW: And he also turned 'em down?
CC: Yeah... $35,000 practically wasn't even gonna pay for the attorney.
PW: Yeah, that's not very much.
CC: Fuck no... and then that's 15 years...
PW: So you just don't want to go public about this because...?
CC: That would goddamn bury me. Oh, god no.
PW: How could they get you...? You're in prison.
CC: I was charged... I've been charged... for... elk... [unintelligible]... and the goddamn Game and Fish has been after me for years... god... I hope you're not taping this.
PW: No.
CC: Because I can't... I don't want nothing to do with this [unintelligible].
PW: Okay... Well this verifies the rumor then... So this person who offered you the money to kill the wolf, er, to kill all the wolves for $35,000... was the person from Silver City?
CC: No.
PW: Somewhere in Catron...?
CC: I think he goddamn lives around Glenwood. He's a goddamn rancher.
PW: So this person was someone you knew?
CC: Yeah, I've known him for a long time.
PW: Well, gosh, this is very interesting.
CC: You wanna catch somebody doing something.
PW: I would like to find out who's making the offer... because those are the people... I don't want to get you in trouble.
CC: ... You'd get me so goddamn much in trouble... the cattlemen would fuckin'... would be on my dad's ass, and my dad would be ashamed of me.
PW: Yeah, yeah.
CC: I mean we been here for so goddamn long. My dad... I never told him I was gonna tell... I told him that I was gonna say something to somebody, but he said just don't bring his goddamn name up.
PW: Yeah, okay.
CC: ... I'd prefer you not say anything because I'd have to deny everything. That would put me in such a bad situation... All my inlaws are goddamn ranchers...
PW: I have to go now, but I'm wondering if I could come and visit you sometime would you talk more to me?
CC: I'm outta here in two months. I get out in July. Are you still gonna be in the country in July?
PW: Yeah.
CC: I'll be in the halfway house.
PW: Okay.
CC: We can go have coffee at the damn club.
PW: Okay.
CC: I wish they had a Starbucks here, but they don't.
PW: Okay, well, I got to head off.
CC: Well, ma'am, I'll tell you what. Right now I'm just trying to get out of this goddamn place.
PW: Well thanks, thanks so much. At least I know the rumor is true.
CC: New Mexico Cattlemen's Association.
PW: Yeah... those bastards. Okay... I figured... Thanks a lot.
CC: Yes, ma'am.
Wolff told US Fish and Wildlife Service investigators about her recorded interview with bounty hunter Cooper in May, but it fell upon deaf ears. It wasn't until a string of three more wolf shootings between August 7 and November 7 that an agent finally listened to the tape. According to Wolff, a grand jury has recently been convened to investigate the wolf killings, but the US Attorney's office in Albuquerque told her it would not confirm nor deny the existence of such a grand jury. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is currently in the midst of four "open investigations" concerning wolf shootings over the past few months. It has declined to comment on the ongoing investigations.
By late November, the federal reintroduction had been successfully sabotaged. The last two survivors in the wild, both males, were recaptured and put back into pens. Determined to continue, the agency released two pairs of wolves from acclimation pens on December 11. According to the USFWS, an adult male and two-year-old female have remained together, ranging up to 15 miles from their release pen. The other pair, released from a different pen, split up after three days. The male members of these two pairs were the survivors of the original 11 released in March.
Only time will tell the fate of this testy reintroduction program. The USFWS seems positive about the steps it is taking. "We are much more confident now in these wolves' ability to survive and thrive in the wild," said David Parsons, Mexican wolf recovery leader for the USFWS. "Now we need to place more emphasis on increasing human tolerance of wolves and eliminating illegal killing, which is the main factor preventing the return of the lobo to the Southwest." But in order for this success to come, the USFWS must not just release wolf after wolf back into the wild, it must get to the bottom of the Cooper tape and prosecute the forces behind the sniping.
The tape recording Wolff made of her conversation with Cooper can be heard as an audiofile on the website of Forest Guardians (www.fguardians.org).