Wild wolves will be exterminated across the United States — the president signed a decree

Outdated archaic management systems continue to dismantle protected areas while recklessly exterminating wild animals. This time — the United States. Right now, amid the general weakening of wildlife protection status, Donald Trump's administration has targeted wolves — animals that the United States nearly eradicated in the 20th century, only to spend decades and millions of dollars restoring them to the wild.

Conservationists from the USA have written to me, expressing their despair, unsure of what can be done when the government system bulldozes the remnants of wildlife.

To remind those unaware of the scale: in the summer of 2026, the Trump administration removed the definition of the word harm for endangered species if their habitat is destroyed. This was done in the interest of big business, which long demanded the right to destroy nature, with rare animal and plant species being obstacles. Additionally, it was "accidentally" allowed to kill polar bears for oil and gas extraction, which are also at risk of extinction. Over 1,400 amendments to laws were adopted, legalizing even greater scales of recreational hunting and fishing, legalizing the logging of ancient forests across the country for resource extraction, logging, and roads, and much more. Unprecedented pressure on wildlife!

On September 4, 2026, Trump personally signed a new presidential decree "Supporting America’s Ranchers." A separate document of this decree addressed predator control: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was instructed to determine within 90 days whether the gray wolf (Canis lupus) and Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) meet the criteria for downgrading their protection status or complete removal from the federal protection list. The Secretary must approve this. The White House also demands legislative proposals to remove or weaken species protection.

One wants to shout: LEAVE THE POOR WOLVES ALONE! STOP TEARING APART THE LAST OF WHAT WE HAVE LEFT.

And it doesn't matter where this is — in the USA, Russia, or Europe — ONE SMALL PLANET THAT WE ARE DESTROYING.

But! Trump's decree doesn't end there. After a positive decision, federal authorities must approach the states and encourage them to remove their own wolf protections and revise rules limiting lethal removal.

In other words, they must pressure regional authorities to sign off on the extermination of wolves.

Currently, bureaucratic procedures are underway, and federal protection for wolves has not been removed simply because wolf protection in the country has been ongoing for a long time, with millions of dollars spent on population restoration. But the mere fact that the president personally signs such a decree demonstrates the scale of absolute madness within the government system.

Now let me explain my indignation.

Besides the fact that wolves are intelligent animals and are unjustly exterminated worldwide.

Besides the fact that humans have already exterminated many wolf species and continue to "bury" the last survivors.

Besides the fact that all conflicts with wolves are provoked by humans through linear killings, a complete lack of scientific logic, fragmentation of wolf packs, and destruction of their habitat.

My indignation at what is happening in the USA is justified by the fact that the wolves targeted for extermination are already on the brink of extinction. This concerns the Mexican wolf — by the end of 2025, its population was about 319 individuals. Arizona's relevant agency admitted in February 2026 that the wolf recovery plan was for 320 individuals, and now... the president demands their extermination. The minimal recovery plan was not even fulfilled.

To understand the scale, we need to remove today's numbers and return about half a century back. Just decades!

Why did the US authorities start protecting wolves? Because the situation reached extreme catastrophe — according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, excluding Alaska, wolves were preserved in only two places: about a thousand animals in northeastern Minnesota and a small isolated group of about 40 wolves on Isle Royale in Michigan. Wolves were exterminated in the vast majority of the 48 contiguous states.

Wolves were systematically exterminated during the West's development, accused of livestock attacks, and receiving huge sums from budgets as compensation. It's just business. For the Mexican wolf, experts in the USA directly cite private and government predator reduction campaigns as the reason for near-total extermination. By 1970, the Mexican wolf was wiped out in the wild in the southwestern USA.

The Mexican wolf was incredibly lucky in a biological sense. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, an international breeding program was built on the descendants of just seven founding animals.

Think about it! Only a FEW INDIVIDUALS remained, from which the population was painstakingly restored over decades. Through incredible efforts by scientists and conservation organizations, this was achieved.

The return of wolves was long, projects required millions of dollars, and the best scientists in the country. In the Yellowstone area, for example, preparation took decades. You probably remember stories about how nature changed after wolves were released in Yellowstone? We all talk and know about it! The whole world knows that even riverbeds changed and nature transformed — everything is so interconnected in the wild.

Listen to what preceded this: decades of preparation, millions of dollars, the best scientists in the country. In 1994, a federal environmental review was completed, and the project received OVER 160,000 public comments — an ABSOLUTE RECORD for such a federal procedure at the time. The entire United States watched the wolf restoration with bated breath, discussed it, and were proud that the system was finally changing from destruction to protection.

Only in 1995–1996 were the first 31 wolves relocated from Canada to Yellowstone: 14 in 1995 and another 17 in 1996.

I'm not exaggerating about the costs. The 1995–1996 reintroduction alone cost $870,000: capturing, transporting, and releasing wolves in Yellowstone and central Idaho. In 1992, the initial recovery plan cost $6.7 million until the recovery criterion was met. Specifically, the Yellowstone portion was $4.3 million. Additionally, further management of federal lands was estimated at $1.5 million annually, paid by taxpayers, meaning ordinary citizens funded all this.

But that's not all! There was also private funding — by 2013, about $5 million, grants through the Yellowstone Park Foundation since 1996. This doesn't include all government funding, other grants, and so on.

One could continue because money "came from all sides" in colossal amounts, SO THAT JUST A FEW DOZEN WOLVES IN THE STATES COULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE AFTER COMPLETE EXTERMINATION BY HUMANS.

Once again, comrades, do you realize the scale of this madness? If you stretch the timeline of this very short history and look at it as a whole, up to the moment when Donald Trump signs the order "to decide on the extermination of wolves," — you can go crazy! Madness! Pure madness! You immediately begin to understand the real state of affairs in the existing management system — an extreme degree of inadequacy.

How many wolves are left in the states overall, not just the Mexican ones? Data varies. For example, in Alaska, the entire population is 7–11 thousand gray wolves, and there the wolf never had federal protection status. But Alaska is a completely different story; it cannot be used as proof that wolf recovery is complete in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, or other parts of the former range. It's like proving the well-being of the Amur tiger in the Russian Far East by the number of tigers somewhere in another country: biologically the same species, but the spatial stability of populations is completely different. I think this doesn't even need explaining — all our comrades perfectly understand what is being discussed.

By the way, it is in Alaska that the Trump administration is now massively reducing the protection status of wildlife for industrial interests. The pressure is colossal!

For the 48 contiguous states, I couldn't find a unified wolf count for 2026, meaning this data doesn't exist. Each state has its own counting methods, years, and bureaucratic flaws. What I found for sure is that states count wolves multiple times — packs migrate, and each time they are recounted, the same ones.

I found the following data:

Alaska = 7–11 thousand wolves

Minnesota = approximately 2,200–3,000

Michigan = about 768

Wisconsin = 1,200

Western USA = experts estimate about 2,797 wolves in 2022

Mexican wolf = about 319 individuals

And don't think this is a lot! We're talking about a huge country with an area of about 9.8 million km², where, according to these estimates, only about 14–19 thousand wolves live. And it's unknown how many wolves are counted multiple times. Moreover, a significant portion of the entire population is concentrated in Alaska, while in the vast expanses of the continental USA, the wolf remains a rare and extremely unevenly distributed species.

We need to understand the context: before the colonization of North America by Europeans, up to 2 million wolves lived there (North America and northern Mexico). Even the most conservative estimates call for a population of about 400,000 individuals.

Today, the entire population, if it corresponds to reality, is 14-19 thousand individuals. Meanwhile, the continent is now home to a vast number of people, with approximately 342.9 million people living in the USA as of September 16, 2026.

As for wolves, remember that, according to scientists, a more or less viable population capable of sustaining reproduction and surviving in natural conditions should be at least 1,000 individuals. Almost the entire wolf population in the USA is concentrated in certain states where there is still wilderness, like Alaska with its national protected areas. But now these lands are urgently needed by big business, the destruction of ancient forests has been legalized, and much more, and naturally, animals have become a "problem": without forests, they will go to people, the problem of nature destruction will become visible and will raise "uncomfortable questions" from citizens. Therefore, a decision is made for the permanent extermination of animals BEFORE they can reach people.

It is especially alarming that in Trump's decree, the Mexican wolf is listed alongside the gray — its population is just over 300 individuals.

Do you know how they justify the extermination of wolves now? The White House begins the document by stating that the American cattle herd is at its lowest in 75 years. I double-checked the numbers, and it's true: as of January 1, 2026, authorities counted 86.2 million head of cattle and calves, including 27.6 million beef cows.

But there's a substitution of concepts!

The crisis of cattle reduction cannot be explained by wolf attacks. The authorities themselves previously confirmed that drought, fires, and desertification of degrading areas are the leading factors in the reduction of the beef herd: in July 2026, about 46% of the American herd was in areas of at least moderate drought.

I specifically found data to confirm my conclusions.

Look.

In Oregon in 2025, authorities confirmed the death of 10 cows, 77 calves, eight sheep, and one goat from wolves. Also, one shepherd dog. Many were "probably" attributed, meaning it was not definitively stated that wolves were to blame. For a specific small farm, this may be significant, BUT FOR A HUGE COUNTRY WITH A NATIONAL HERD IN THE TENS OF MILLIONS, THIS IS A STATISTICAL ERROR.

In Washington state in 2025, the agency registered 17 confirmed episodes of livestock attacks involving 19 head of cattle. Even in Minnesota, where there is a relatively large wolf population by the standards of all other states, authorities themselves write: the number of animals lost to wolves is small and affects less than 1% of the state's livestock farms.

Moreover, I remind you that I previously wrote about a real study with wolves in Europe, where scientists proved: wolves almost NEVER attack cattle, and these are mostly systematic fabrications. You can read about it here: https://pavel-pashkov.com/articles/ru/wolves-and-cattle

But wolves are accused of attacking livestock, I repeat, TO RECEIVE COMPENSATION PAYMENTS FROM THE STATE BUDGET. For example, in 2026, the federal "Livestock Indemnity Program" increased compensation for livestock deaths from federally protected predators to 100% of the established market value, retroactive to January 1, 2026.

Donald Trump simply represents the interests of big business, that's all. And now he is fulfilling all their demands! For example, in 2026, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association — one of the main industry organizations of American cattle breeding — published a document with an extremely direct title: "NCBA leads work to delist wolves in the lower 48 states." The organization explicitly demands the removal of federal protection from wolves and allows their extermination.

And then, as you see, the president personally sits in the White House and signs such an order. Naturally, there is a connection with organized industry lobbying.

This is how wolves have been made "scapegoats," and very soon, their mass extermination may begin across all states. Business is already rejoicing and loading magazines, preparing to clear the wilderness of wolves that dared to survive against all odds.

© PAVEL PASHKOV