#misrepresentation.

An acquaintance of mine posted on her Facebook that she saw a wolf walking across the street in the middle of Fort Collins, Colorado. Her friends all commented with versions of “I saw one too!” “I have multiple hybrids!” “Kill them because they kill cattle up here in Iowa”. 

I mentioned that wolves aren’t in Colorado. They’re not. We don’t have the space for them anymore. The joys of Colorado that bring so many people here are the same things that would bring wolves here... beautiful montane habitats and diverse wildlife. We have pushed the wolves out. There are no established packs here... yet. I made a point to add “yet”. 

I also said that what she saw was either a coyote - very common in Fort Collins - or someone’s loose dog. Lots of people in Colorado have wolfy-looking breeds like huskies, malamutes, and shepherds. 

She responds with a very vague description of the animal she saw. To which I emphasized it was either a coyote or a dog and then gave a basic description of a coyote. She hasn’t responded and her friends are all blowing up her comments with “hybrids are common!” “Call the wildlife people!” “Here’s a pic of my hybrid! *pic of a lovely husky*”. 

I just... stopped responding. I actually ended up unfollowing the notifications on that post and unfollowed her as well - her posts have been very... annoying as of late anyway so meh. 

But. I fee like I failed as an educator because I just.. don’t have the energy to re-direct these people and send link after link. I assume - which I know is not a good thing - that I’ll be met with people who would rather be ignorant about it. It’s not stupidity. It’s not them being dumb. It’s just ignorance. They don’t know better. So I should take it upon myself to provide references... 

idk. Maybe I’ll just drop some links in the comments, not replying to anyone specifically so I don’t start shit. 

I have no energy for a fight right now.