Earlier this month, we learned that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rogue animal-killing program, USDA Wildlife Services, is employing sickening and brutal strategies to wipe out whole families of wolves in Idaho, by radio-collaring “Judas” wolves and forcing them to be unwilling participants in their track-to-kill scheme.

A Judas wolf is one who is trapped, fitted with a radio collar, and then released back into the wild. The unsuspecting wolf returns home, unwittingly leading government snipers to the location of his den. Once the location of the wolf’s den has been confirmed, USDA Wildlife Services snipers fly to the location and gun the wolves down from helicopters. The snipers kill the wolf’s entire family, including his mate and his pups. He alone is left alive to witness this utter devastation of his pack. Most often, the wolves’ deaths are slow and painful, and the Judas wolf can do nothing but watch them bleed out around him. We cannot fathom the trauma this inflicts on him, and wolves like him. Unfortunately, for Judas wolves, their heartache doesn’t end with just one massacre.

Government snipers continue to track them through the season, watching for signs that they’ve merged with a new pack, or even better, that they’ve found new mates and have begun new families. Once this is confirmed, the snipers swoop in, again, and repeat this vicious cycle of slaughter—forever condemning these collared wolves to witness their families being murdered over and over with no end in sight.

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