Wildlife officials in Montana are investigating an “anti-wolf” crusader who bragged on Facebook about running down two wolves in his van and included what appeared to be pictures of one of the animals lying dead in the road.
“Two wolves out of the equation … and it was all an accident. I love it when things go good,” Toby Bridges, of Missoula, wrote in the Sept. 16 post, according to the Great Falls Tribune.
Bridges runs a “pro wolf control” website called Lobo Watch, which advocates for snuffing out wolves because they threaten hunting game.
In the post, Bridges said he was driving on Interstate 90 near the Idaho-Montana border earlier this month when a female elk and her baby darted out in front of his van.
“I let up on the gas and had just started to brake — in case more elk followed,” Bridges wrote. “What followed were two adult wolves.”
Bridges wrote that he slowed down and watched as the mother elk hopped over a traffic barrier, but the calf stayed behind.
“The wolves went after the calf … and I let off the brake and hit the accelerator,” he said.
“I was going to save that calf,” he said.
Bridges said he got up to 55 mph when four more wolves appeared in the road.
“There was no time to hit the brakes (like I really would?) and I heard two distinct loud ‘thumps,'” he said.
“Out of my mirror, I saw an almost black 50-pound wolf spinning around in the middle of the highway … with one very apparent, very badly broken back leg,” he said.
“In the other mirror, I saw one slightly smaller wolf rolling onto the shoulder.”
Bridges said he drove on for a few moments before turning around to check out the scene.
One wolf lay dead on the shoulder, while the second, who appeared to be limping, escaped into the surrounding woods, he said.
He wrote he thought about following to “(put) the young wolf out its misery,” but reconsidered because there were other wolves around and he “did not have a gun in the van.”
Bridges posted four photos to the Lobo Watch Facebook community page.
Three of them showed what appeared to be a dead grey wolf lying on the shoulder of a road, with a van with Montana plates parked nearby.
Montana fish and wildlife officials told the Tribune they were looking into the case, saying Bridges may have broken the law by intentionally running down animals with his car.
“We’re trying to determine, first of all, what exactly we can do with something somebody says on Facebook with no other physical evidence,” Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Capt. Joseph Jaquith told the newspaper.
“Whether or not it’s true remains to be seen.”
“It’s very unsporting, regardless of how you feel about wolves or lawful means for harvest of wolves, certainly running them down on the highway is not what we would accept,” he added.
Bridges didn’t respond to an email from the paper seeking comment.
