WASHINGTON— More than 60 conservation groups from across North America filed letters today urging the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to immediately prohibit the use of snowmobiles or other vehicles to run down, injure or kill wildlife on all federal lands they manage.

Today’s letters were spurred by a recent incident in which a man from Daniel, Wyoming, ran over a yearling female wolf with his snowmobile. This is a hunting practice that states like Wyoming and Idaho authorize for wolves and other predators.

Instead of immediately putting the wolf out of her misery, media reports indicate that the man took her to his home and then to a bar. Shocking photos, videos and witness statements resulted in him being convicted of a misdemeanor under state law for possession of a live wolf. The penalty was a $250 fine.

“This obscene cruelty to wolves and other wildlife is legal under state law, so federal officials need to step in and stop it,” said Amaroq Weiss, a senior wolf advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s disgusting that Wyoming and Idaho allow coyotes and wolves to be chased, bludgeoned and run over by snowmobiles. But the American people own the federal lands throughout the country, and we won’t stop until federal agencies ban this horrific practice where they can.”

Public pressure finally resulted in the state wildlife agency, state wildlife commission and governor’s office condemning the man’s actions. Their statements, however, reflect a tendency by state officials to paint the incident as a “one-off,” even though it stems from the state’s anti-predator laws, which authorize running down wolves with snowmobiles and other brutal hunting practices.

“The facts belie state officials’ claims that running over wildlife with snowmobiles and further torturing them doesn’t exemplify Wyoming values,” said Weiss. “By allowing wolves and other predators to be killed by any and all means in most of the state, Wyoming has created an outdoors torture chamber for wildlife. I hope the federal agencies step up to ban this atrocious practice on the lands they manage in Wyoming and across the country.”

In Wyoming 85% of the state is designated as a “Predator Zone,” where wolves and other wildlife classified as predators — including coyotes, jackrabbits, porcupines, raccoons, red fox, skunks and stray cats — may be killed without limits at any time of year by any means with no license requirement.