Man Accused of Showing Off Hurt Wolf in Bar, Then Killing It
A Wyoming man has been indicted on a felony animal cruelty charge by a grand jury, more than a year after he allegedly struck a wolf with a snowmobile, bound its mouth with tape, and brought the injured animal into a rural bar before eventually killing it.
Cody Roberts, identified in photos and videos from the February 29, 2024, incident, was previously fined $250 for illegal possession of wildlife. However, he initially avoided more serious charges as investigators struggled to find witnesses willing to cooperate, according to the Associated Press.
Although Wyoming law permits the killing of wolves and other predators by various means across most of the state, the 12-member grand jury concluded there was sufficient evidence to support a felony charge. Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich announced the indictment in a statement on Wednesday.
Widely circulated images showed Roberts posing with the bound wolf inside a bar near the small town of Daniel, just over an hour south of Jackson. Video footage from the same day showed the animal alive but incapacitated, lying on the floor.
The lenient punishment Roberts initially received drew national outrage and sparked calls for a boycott of Wyoming tourism. However, those efforts appeared to have little effect: Yellowstone National Park reported its second-highest visitation numbers in 2024, with attendance up more than 5% from the previous year.
Grand juries are uncommon in Wyoming. The last notable case occurred in 2019, when a grand jury cleared a sheriff’s deputy of involuntary manslaughter following a deadly traffic stop.
Wolves were nearly eradicated in the lower 48 states by the mid-20th century due to government-backed poisoning, trapping, and bounties. A federal reintroduction program in the 1990s helped restore wolf populations in Yellowstone and central Idaho. While wolves remain federally protected in much of the U.S., they are no longer protected in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, where hunting and trapping are allowed.
However, protections remain in place within Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, where wolves are a major draw for tourists. Outside those parks, in roughly 85% of Wyoming—including Sublette County—wolves are classified as predators and may be killed by nearly any means.
Despite this classification, organizations such as the Humane Society argue that Wyoming’s animal cruelty laws should still apply. If convicted, Roberts faces up to two years in prison and a fine of $5,000.
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