Advocates for voting rights were collecting signatures in Eastern Michigan University’s Student Center Wednesday for a petition to allow the citizens of Michigan to have a say in new hunting laws.
The 2012 revisions of the Public Act 520 allow citizens of Michigan to hunt and kill wolves.
“I’m not familiar with hunting culture, but I agree that the public should have a valid vote or say in the matter,” said EMU student Alexandria Edwards.
Congress took wolves off of the endangered species list for the Great Lakes region in 2012. According to Mlive.com, the bill was passed by the state Senate in late November 2012 and was up for approval by the Michigan House.
The website also predicted that in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula there are fewer than 700 wolves left in the wild, causing concern for the Native Americans who view the wolf as a sacred animal.
“Hunting should be for survival purposes. Shooting [wolves] for fun is just wrong,” said EMU student Justina Fei.
EMU student Michael Pilon was pessimistic about the way the government handled the situation.
“The government could have put it in the election in November 2012.
The fact that the wolves just got off the endangered species list and suddenly the law gets changed seems like a big coincidence of timing, especially because there are many other things the government should be focusing on,” he said.
