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WYCAP

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The Wyoming Coalition for Animal Protection works to protect all animals through education, training, and legal advocacy.

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Meet the Wyoming Beaver Conservation Project. 🗺️🦫

Beavers slow water down and spread it across the land. Research shows beaver activity can store hundreds of millions of cubic feet of water in a single watershed, reducing flooding and helping landscapes hold up against drought and fire. That’s good news for ranchers, farmers, hunters, anglers, wildlife, and anyone who depends on Wyoming’s water.

But beavers were driven to near extinction in the 1800s, and they still face trapping, drought, disease, and habitat loss today.

This project asks a question no one in Wyoming can answer with confidence yet: where would bringing beavers back do the most good?

Led by the University of Wyoming @biodiversityinstitute with the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database, Utah State University, @wyominguntrapped, and WYCAP, the project will:

📍 Map where beavers could thrive
📍 Find where they live now
📍 Spot the places they’re missing
📍 Explore where beaver wetlands could help with water storage and wildfire resilience
📍 Work with landowners, partners, and volunteers to check it all on the ground

Here’s how you can help right now:

💛 Give. We’re raising $150,000 to build the science behind bringing beavers back, and every dollar gets us closer. Donate through the link in our bio. 🔗

Want to get your boots wet? Field opportunities for citizen scientists are planned for later in the project, so follow along for updates. 🥾

#BeaverConservation #WyomingWildlife #Drought #Wildfire #CommunityScience by @wyo_cap

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18 hours ago

How can a single animal hoarding case cost a community hundreds of thousands of dollars, while the animals sit in kennels as “evidence”?

Britney Tennant, CEO of the @cheyenneanimalshelter, breaks it down on the @beyondthefrontdoorpodcast, and it’s a must-listen for anyone who cares about animals in Wyoming. 🎙️🐾

The conversation explores:

- Open admission and the hard decisions shelters face
- Why prevention beats crisis response
- How Title 6 shapes cruelty cases in Wyoming
- The liability and insurance crisis threatening shelters nationwide
- What YOU can ask your elected officials to do

Plus her journey from founding Black Dog Animal Rescue to leading the Cheyenne Animal Shelter.

Thanks for sharing this with our community, Britney! 💙

🎧 Full episode at the link in our bio.

#AnimalWelfare #AnimalShelter #SpayAndNeuter #AnimalAdvocacy by @wyo_cap

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12 days ago

Wyoming wild places just got a deadline. 🐾

The U.S. Forest Service wants to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule, the regulation that has kept 9.7 million acres of Wyoming’s national forests free from new road-building and logging for 25 years.

Proponents of the Roadless Rule nullification point to wildfire risk. But the data tells a more complicated story: fires actually start MORE OFTEN in areas with roads (they just tend to stay smaller there). The current rule already gives local Forest Service managers room to do fire-risk projects where they’re needed.

Rescinding it doesn’t add fire protection, it just removes protection for wildlife habitat and the quiet backcountry so many of us love.

You have until October 6 to weigh in on the record. It takes five minutes:

👉 Go to wycap.org/roadless to be forwarded directly to the Federal eRulemaking Portal to make a comment opposing the proposed repealing of the Roadless Rule. Comment on your own behalf. Mention what roadless areas mean to you, whether that’s habitat, clean water, or quiet recreation.

📌 Save this post as your reminder. Deadline: 10/6.

#WyomingWildlife #RoadlessRule #PublicLands by @wyo_cap

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17 days ago

Meet 🌱 Yarrow 🌿 Sage 🌿 Briar 🌳 Willow 🍃 Fern and 🌸 Lola.

Sharing this on behalf of our friends at @laramieanimalwelfaresociety! They have 6 foster puppies who need to start spending some time apart from their littermates and working on leash skills, confidence & socialization.

These puppies need foster home for even a few days or a weekend (especially Sept 13–14). Can you help, even temporarily? Message LAWS to let them know! by @wyo_cap

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a month ago

There used to be hundreds of millions of beavers shaping the water across this continent, before trapping nearly wiped them out. A new episode of “Resolve to Solve” on @wyomingpbs shows what happens when they come back. 🦫

A rancher near Rawlins watched his creek run dry year after year, until beavers moved in and started building. Now that same stretch of water runs all summer and the banks are green.

Watch “Dam it; Beavers to the Rescue” now (link in bio).

#WyomingWildlife #BeaverBelievers #ProtectWildlife #WyomingPBS by @wyo_cap

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a month ago

Summer in Wyoming is heating up. 🌡️ Does your dog love riding along when you run errands?

On a warm day, your car’s interior temperature rises fast:

10 minutes: +20°
20 minutes: +30°
30 minutes: +35°

...even with windows cracked.

If you see a dog in a hot car: 1) note the license plate number, make, and model of the vehicle, 2) alert nearby businesses (they may be able to make an emergency announcement), 3) call animal control, and 4) stay until help arrives.

Share this to help spread the word, and leave your pup home where it’s cool. 🐾

Thanks to @oregonhumane for the data behind this graphic.

#PetSafety #DogsOfInstagram #AnimalWelfare by @wyo_cap

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4 months ago

Last year, 14 horses were placed on a 30-acre parcel outside Lingle, WY. As the months passed and autumn deepened into winter, the horse grazed the land down to bare dirt. Their unheated water trough froze, melted, then froze again. But their owner didn’t came back.

By November, several were in poor condition. WYCAP got the call about possible abandonment.

What followed was months of navigating Wyoming statute, and attempting to coordinate with local and state authorities. Two Lingle neighbors (including 83-year-old rancher Gary Hubert) quietly hauled hay on their own dime while the legal process caught up. When WYCAP launched a GoFundMe to take over the funding of the horses’ food, the goal was $5,000. But the community had other ideas: 112 donors raised more than $11,000.

By March, all 14 horses were in good condition and when the authorities were finally able to take ownership of the horses and sell them, every single one was placed with a trustworthy local buyer. Not one was sold for slaughter.

This is what’s possible when a community doesn’t look away.

Swipe to read the full story and the link is in our bio for the complete account by WYCAP volunteer Dr. Donal O’Toole.

#AnimalWelfare #HorseRescue #AnimalProtection #WyomingProud by @wyo_cap

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4 months ago

“Cyanide bombs” are not put on public land to kill dogs. But sadly, that doesn’t stop them from doing it.

Without providing the opportunity for public comment, the Trump administration has quietly reversed a 2023 ban on M-44 cyanide devices on public lands. Now these devices can be deployed to 245 million acres! ⚠️

M-44s are spring-loaded devices that lure animals close with scented bait and then kill them with a blast of cyanide into their mouths and noses. They are typically primarily intended for coyotes and foxes, but do not discriminate, and have proved fatal to endangered species and pets. 🐾

So what can be done? Congress can stop this permanently. Canyon’s Law (H.R. 4180 / S. 2179) named for 14-year-old Canyon Mansfield, who watched his dog die after triggering one of these devices 400 feet from his home, would ban M-44s on public lands for good.
Introduced last year, it hasn’t passed yet. Now it’s more urgent than ever.

🔗 Click the link in our bio and use the resource by @westernwatersheds to urge our reps to pass Canyon’s Law and ban cyanide bombs.

#CanyonsLaw #BanCyanideBombs #Wyoming #PublicLands by @wyo_cap

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4 months ago

Make your voice heard before June 10th! Wyoming Game & Fish is proposing a 50% cut to the 2026 wolf hunt to help the population recover from a severe canine distemper outbreak. While 50% sounds like a win, the science says it’s a dangerous gamble for a population at a 20-year low.

We need a pause in 2026, not a downsized hunt. Here is why:

⚠️ Zero Margin: We are down to EXACTLY 10 breeding pairs in the Trophy Zone (the absolute minimum mandated by the federal government).

📉 No Next Generation: The distemper epidemic destroyed pup survival rates, plunging them to a dismal 37%.

🛡️ Adults = Immunity: Surviving adults carry the vital antibodies needed to pass immunity to future litters. Hunting them actively destroys the species’ natural shield.

🎯 The 85% Loophole: Quota cuts only apply to the small Trophy Zone. In the other 85% of Wyoming, wolves can be killed 24/7 with zero limits. Dispersing wolves are walking into a death trap.

Extreme environmental shocks require extreme caution. Don’t let a tepid reduction in the hunt wipe out Wyoming’s wolves!

TAKE ACTION: Click the link in our bio to submit your formal online comment directly to Game & Fish before the hard June 10 deadline. (Click the link, scroll down, and then click “Comment on Chapter 47”)
#WyomingWildlife #YellowstoneWolves #Conservation #ProtectThePack by @wyo_cap

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4 months ago

The House has passed the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 (what we’re calling the Factory Farm Bill) and it’s one of the most damaging pieces of legislation for animals in years.

It would nullify laws already on the books in 15 states, voted into place by each state’s citizens, requiring that pigs, egg-laying hens, and veal calves have space to lie down, turn around, and stretch. Apparently this bare minimum is too much space!

It would strip every state of the authority to set its own humane standards for products sold in that state. And it quietly revives taxpayer subsidies for the mink fur industry, repealing a 30-year federal ban with no public hearings and no debate. Americans don’t wear mink. Why should our tax dollars prop up an industry that services wealthy clients overseas?

The Senate hasn’t voted yet. Wyoming’s Senators Barrasso and Lummis can help stop it if we make our voices heard.

Senator Lummis: 202-224-3424
Senator Barrasso: 202-224-6441

#AnimalWelfare #FactoryFarming #FarmBill2026 taken in Laramie, Wyoming by @wyo_cap

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5 months ago

A bill that would have gutted the Endangered Species Act got pulled from a House floor vote last month due to crumbling support. Wyoming’s wildlife can breathe a little easier.

The ESA Amendments Act, also known as H.R. 1897, would have forced regulators to weigh economic and national security interests when deciding whether to protect a species, while blocking consideration of future threats like climate change. It would also have weakened habitat protections and limited the legal tools used to hold government accountable.

The whooping crane, one of North America’s most endangered birds, is exactly the kind of species the ESA was built to protect. Bills like this put that protection at risk, but bills like this can also lose support when constituents speak up!

#WyomingWildlife #WhoopingCrane #EndangeredSpeciesAct #WyomingAnimals #WildlifeProtection by @wyo_cap

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5 months ago

Last October, a Cheyenne man was found with 101 neglected animals and 22 dead animals on his property. He had 33 prior animal-related citations. Last week, he pleaded guilty to just four misdemeanors.

This outcome is not a one-time fluke. It reflects a fundamental weakness in Wyoming’s felony cruelty statute: to secure a felony charge, prosecutors must prove the abuser INTENDED to cause suffering. That bar (essentially proving what went through the perpetrator’s mind) is so high that county attorneys routinely downgrade charges rather than attempt it. WYCAP volunteers see it happen across the state.

WYCAP board member Dr. Donal O’Toole made the case in Cowboy State Daily this week: proving felony cruelty should not require a body count. Wyoming’s legislature needs to act.

Read the full letter at the link in bio.

#WyomingAnimals #AnimalProtection #AnimalCruelty #WyomingLaw #WYCAP PolicyMatters AnimalWelfare by @wyo_cap

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6 months ago