Feds Are Circling Colorado’s Wolf Program as Director Resigns 🐺

As we continue to slowly but surely inch back towards the weekend, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and get into what this beautiful Tuesday has to offer.

Here's what's worth reading about so far this week:

RUNNING ON FUMES
FEDERAL SCRUTINY AND A KEY RETIREMENT RAISE SURVIVAL QUESTIONS ABOUT COLORADO’S WOLF PROGRAM

The storm of setbacks facing Colorado's voter-approved gray wolf reintroduction program continues to howl out west as the initiative continues to get hammered by the feds and from within. Just yesterday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dropped a formal notice in the Federal Register demanding more answers on "conflict risk" with livestock, how Colorado is actually managing the chaos, and whether the state's compensation scheme is anything more than a slow-motion wealth transfer from taxpayers to ranchers who never asked for any of this.

This is the latest federal escalation after FWS killed the British Columbia import deal back in December, all while demanding a full audit of the program, and making it crystal clear they're not here to rubber-stamp progressive wildlife cosplay when it starts eating into American agriculture.

And in the event that wasn’t enough to make program proponents sweat, Eric Odell, the guy who's been the biological face and operational engine of Colorado Parks and Wildlife's wolf program since the ballot passed, just announced he's riding off into the sunset at the end of June after 25+ years with the agency…

🐕‍🦺 Father and 12-Year-Old Son Devastated After Prized Coonhound Killed in Championship Hunt. In Kirksville, Missouri, a father is speaking out after his son's prized hunting dog was shot and killed during a high-level coonhound competition. Last Friday night, Larry Grimes and his 12-year-old son Hunter were participating in the United Kennel Club Tournament of Champions (an invitational event for elite hounds) with their 9-year-old Treeing Walker Coonhound, Grand Nite Champion Wipeout Katie. Around 9:30 p.m., while Katie was treed on a raccoon and barking, Grimes heard gunshots followed by an eerie silence. When he checked her Garmin tracking collar, the location signal turned into a question mark, suggesting the collar had been turned off or tampered with. Grimes, his son, and a competition judge later found Katie dead with her tracking collar and identification collar missing.

Grimes described the emotional impact, noting that Katie was not only a champion hunter but a beloved family member who helped his young son with daily routines like taking her medication. The incident has sparked outrage in the coonhunting community, with many questioning how a collared, actively working dog in a monitored tournament could be shot by an unknown person (possibly a nearby resident). An investigation is underway and the Missouri Coon Hunters Federation has launched a GoFundMe to support the Grimes family with legal fees and further investigation.

🤑 Farmer's "Hunting Trip" Alibi Falls Flat After Wife Shot Dead Over $200 Million Trust. A wealthy California farming magnate told family he was out hunting in the desert the night his estranged wife was shot through the dining room window of their Arizona vacation home. Turns out the desert he was allegedly stalking happened to include a quick detour to Pinetop, where his 59-year-old ex-wife caught a high-powered rifle round to the face in November 2025. Michael Abatti, 63, one of the biggest landowners in the Imperial Valley, claimed the trip was all about bagging game. That is until license plate readers were able to paint a more suspicious route, showing his truck ping-ponging from California hunting grounds to Arizona and back in a single evening. Because nothing says "innocent hunting trip" quite like GPS evidence turning your alibi into a scenic tour of the crime scene.

The bitter divorce added a nice financial incentive that includes a $200 million trust that would have funneled entirely to Michael if his ex-wife Kerri conveniently didn't make it. He now faces first-degree murder charges, has pleaded not guilty, and is cooling his heels in Navajo County Jail while his lawyers work to prove that the search warrants are just one-sided paperwork.

🦌 Small Maine Town May Allow Limited Deer Hunting for First Time in Nearly a Century. Residents of the small coastal town of Tremont on Mount Desert Island, Maine, will vote at May’s annual town meeting on whether to end a nearly 100-year ban on deer hunting. High deer populations in the area have led to increased vehicle collisions and heightened concerns about Lyme disease, prompting local officials to consider a limited, regulated hunt. If approved by voters, the proposal would allow archery and shotgun hunting only, require hunters to use tree stands or fixed positions, and restrict harvests to antlerless deer only. The measure is framed as a three-year experimental program, potentially limited to local residents in starting in November.

That said, the town cannot independently open hunting seasons as that authority rests solely with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Director Nathan Webb has stated that any local approval would trigger the state's formal rulemaking process, including public comments, a hearing, and review by the Advisory Council before implementation. A similar bill last year to open all of Mount Desert Island to regulated deer hunting failed to advance in the legislature.

🦄 Now that’s a unique horn. Apparently this fella’s right antler grows straight out from his skull and when he happens to lose that left one first, let’s just say the name starts to make a lot of sense.

See what we did there…

Oh, and one more thing…