A trapper posing for the camera  with a  wounded wolf in the background caught in  a leghold trap  (Photo Courtesy Earth Island Journal)

The picture has now become iconic. A beautiful, black wolf, caught in a leghold trap, wounded, STILL ALIVE, blood soaking the snow around him, holding his injured foot off the ground, with the face of a trapper mugging for the camera.

The situation had become something of an arena sport because the trapped wolf was shot at by “hunters” just  having a little “fun”??  What a blast (pun intended) that must have been for them to fire on a trapped, defenseless animal?  Right?? Whoever shot at that wolf should be charged with a crime, this was animal torture and cruelty at its worst.  BUT, was what they did anymore cruel than trapping the wolf in the first place? Who knows how long he’d been…