He limped around in circles, desperately searching for a way to escape the heavy metal trap with steel jaws that cut into his paw and sent pain shooting through his body. A crowd of people was forming, pointing at the blood in the snow, graphic evidence of the potshots taken by passing hunters who had spotted the wolf from the road, his black fur an easy target against the white snow. The wolf struggled to stay on his feet, panting in agony and trying in vain to escape his tormenters. When the trapper arrived, instead of putting the anguished animal out of his misery, the man posed for proud, smiling pictures in the blood-drenched snow. He later bragged on a blog about how the wolf would make a nice trophy for his wall.

Cruel torture killings like this one have played out over and over in Idaho and Montana ever since grey wolves in the Northern Rockies lost the protection of the Endangered Species Act in 2011. In the past wolf-hunting season alone, 534 wolves were trapped, snared, and/or shot, cutting the estimated grey wolf population in the two states in half.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region | cc by 2.0

Despite vigorous opposition from PETA and ranchers, grey wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park in 1995. We predicted that as soon as the wolves' numbers grew and they began preying on livestock and deer and elk (which the hunters want for themselves), the pressure would mount to exterminate them. Less than two decades later, that is happening.

Please, ask your congressional representatives to put wolves back on the endangered species list and save them from being tortured and killed by trappers and hunters.

Fremlin | cc by 2.0

There's no gray area when it comes to The Grey—this film has been rotten to wolves from the get-go.

Reneging on Their Word

Long before filming started, PETA met with a producer of The Grey and explained how animals used in movies often spend most of their time confined to chains or cages when they are not performing and may be beaten or deprived of food in order to force them to perform. The producers assured us that they would use only computer-generated imagery and animatronic wolves—but we've now learned that they reneged on their promise. 

Eating Wolf Meat

Director Joe Carnage—oh, excuse me … Carnahan—ordered wolf carcasses flown in for the cast to eat so that the actors would "have a sense of the movie we were making." He bought the meat from a trapper, meaning that the wolves likely suffered horribly in traps before being killed.

Not surprisingly, Liam Neeson, no friend to animals, was game for eating wildlife. 

The Big, Bad Wolf

A film that has the potential to scare more people than "Little Red Riding Hood," The Grey portrays these intelligent, family-oriented animals the same way in which Jaws portrays sharks. The writers paint a pack of wolves living in the Alaskan wilderness as bloodthirsty monsters, intent on killing every survivor of a plane crash by tearing each person limb from limb. Yet wolves aren't aggressive animals, and as Maggie Howell, the managing director of America's Wolf Conservation Center, says, "Wolves don't hunt humans—they actually shy away from them."

Don't just shy away—run away from The Grey.

In a case of literal overkill, Sweden is turning more than 6,700 hunters loose on just 20 wolves. In case you don't have a calculator handy, that breaks down to about 335 armed-and-dangerous folks per animal—in a country with only about 200 wolves. And Sweden claims that this is being done to increase the country's wolf population. Wow, if that's how they handle reproductive problems, I'd hate to visit a Swedish fertility clinic!

The European Union (EU) is calling Sweden out on its bull … er, wolf droppings, warning the country that the hunt violates EU directives. EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik has proposed formal proceedings against Sweden for breaching EU regulations. But the action will be too late for the wolves—at least 16 have already died, and during a previous wolf slaughter, hunters went over their quota.

caninest/cc by 2.0

Wolves mate for life and live in close-knit family units that work together to care for their young and hunt. They rarely have internal disputes with other pack members—something we humans could learn from. Hunting can devastate entire communities of these intelligent, social animals.

Not mentioning anyone by name (*cough* Sarah Palin *cough*), but some in the U.S. also have wolf blood on their hands. You can do something about it here.

Written by Jeff Mackey