MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Wyoming is home to hundreds of wolves. Most live near Yellowstone National Park, are protected and are a big draw for tourists. But elsewhere in the state, wolves are a reviled predator viewed as a threat to the livestock industry. In those places, killing wolves is legal. One man who did that recently is now under investigation after the animal's death sparked outrage around the world. Caitlin Tan at Wyoming Public Radio reports.
CAITLIN TAN, BYLINE: Video shot inside a Wyoming bar in February show a man with an injured, muzzled and leashed wolf. That man is Cody Roberts, who's from a longtime local ranching family. Anonymous sources say Roberts ran the wolf over with a snowmobile, which is legal, but it's what happened at the bar - Roberts displaying the wolf - that has become a huge story.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Well, he has a collar on.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Oh. Oh, man.
TAN: Someone at the bar that night reported Roberts to game wardens. They ticketed him for possession of live wildlife, and he paid a $250 fine. But when videos from the bar leaked in April, they spread internationally.
CODY ROBERTS: I've had death threats from Ireland, Russia, Japan, Australia.
TAN: The Cody Roberts who's under investigation isn't talking to reporters. This Cody Roberts lives two hours away and isn't related.
ROBERTS: I don't know how many thousands of messages I've had.
TAN: Because some people have mistaken his Facebook page for the other Cody Roberts.
ROBERTS: Like this one just says, you're a psychopathic wolf torturer - kill yourself.
TAN: Roberts says he's also disappointed in what the Cody Roberts did, but he actually thinks these threats are worse.
ROBERTS: Does he deserve everything that he's getting? No, I don't think he does. You know, he's still a human.
TAN: This anger spilling out beyond Sublette County where the video was shot. #BoycottWyoming is a trending hashtag, and local businesses are being left one-star reviews only because they're in the same area. Cali O'Hare, the sole employee of the local newspaper, the Pinedale Roundup, has had to write about it.
CALI O'HARE: It is truly one of those - you're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't.
TAN: In this tight-knit community known for cowboys and sprawling sagebrush, this kind of attention is unheard of. And O'Hare says it's clear that some didn't like hearing about an incident that cast a shadow over one of their own. Here's one comment she got.
O'HARE: It says - go practice real journalism, Cali O'Hare, you [expletive] on a witch hunt for a man's family.
TAN: Others asked O'Hare to stop the coverage. One accused her of not being objective or embellishing.
O'HARE: I'm just doing my job. It's not personal, and I have great empathy for all of the folks involved in this.
TAN: The local sheriff's department was getting so many phone calls and messages, it set up a separate tip line. Outsiders want Roberts, who the sheriff's department is investigating, to be arrested, and some say Wyoming's wolf laws should be changed. C. J. Box is a popular Wyoming author who's penned dozens of books following a fictional game warden.
C J BOX: An incident like this tars everyone.
TAN: Box says people may not like Roberts and Wyoming being attacked by outsiders, but that doesn't mean they're defending what he allegedly did with the wolf.
BOX: That's not hunting. Every hunter I know of, if they wound something, will try to dispatch that animal as quickly and humanely as possible - not take it back, not show it off, not take pictures with it.
TAN: Box says Wyoming's compromise wolf laws are mostly working, protecting them in some places and allowing them to be hunted in others. But this incident has state lawmakers looking at making changes. For NPR News, I'm Caitlin Tan in Sublette County, Wyo.
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