Two wildlife advocacy groups say they were muzzled last week when Wyoming officials talked, briefly, about reforms state officials have mulled after a case of wolf torment spurred international outrage.

Legislators running the meeting chalked the issue up to technical issues.

The dustup happened July 9 and 10, about two weeks after the first meeting of the Wyoming Legislature’s “Treatment of Predators Working Group,” which was assembled after Cody Roberts brought a muzzled, collared, wolf that he’d allegedly hit with a snowmobile and whose mouth he’d duct taped shut, to the Green River Bar before killing it.

Roberts action’s ignited a global call for reforming Wyoming wolf policy, which currently allows people to kill wolves in almost any way in the 85% of the state where they’re considered predators — including by running the canines over with snowmobiles.

On July 9, Rep. Liz Storer, the Jackson Democrat leading the working group, provided a brief update on the group’s first meeting to the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee, which created the group.

Afterward, the co-chair of the committee, Rep. Sandy Newsome, (R-Cody), took public comment.

While other wildlife advocates were able to make comments, both over Zoom and in person, neither Kristin Combs, executive director of Wyoming Wildlife Advocates, nor Kim Bean, president of Wolves of the Rockies, was afforded a chance to comment via Zoom.

The same thing happened the next day, after Combs and Bean contacted legislative staff, and Newsome made time for additional comment, Combs said.

“It does not seem like there is a very transparent and inclusive process here,” Combs said. “It seems like everything is happening behind closed doors or without public input being permitted along the way.”

As evidence, Combs pointed to the limited discussion that happened at the May meeting where the Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee appointed the working group, which primarily consists of state officials and lobbyists that Gov. Mark Gordon has consulted since news of the incident went viral.

Those officials have presented tightly coordinated messaging, using identical language to describe how Wyoming should and should not respond.

Combs highlighted the fact that no public comment was taken at the first, June 25 meeting of the Treatment of Predators Working Group. And she questioned why, after Storer provided her update on July 9, nobody from the larger committee discussed the issue.

“It feels very exclusive as to who is permitted to speak on the issue,” Combs said.

Newsome did not respond to a request for comment. But her co-chair, Sen. Wendy Schuler, (R-Evanston), said there was “some kind of technical glitch” last week. “It wasn’t anything certainly on our part to squash a public testimony. We want to hear from the public,” Schuler said. “We want to hear from all the stakeholders. Not just the ranchers, not just the hunters.”

Schuler pushed back on the allegation that officials have been back channeling, pointing to the two hours of public comment the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission took at an April meeting in Riverton. The only communication that happened with the Travel Committee before its first, May meeting about wolves was a directive to members to watch that comment so they knew the public sentiment, Schuler said.

At that meeting, legislators took public comment but limited comments to two minutes apiece.

The reason for brevity is that legislative leadership has not given the committee the directive to pursue wolf reform in between sessions. Typically, the legislative Management Council tells committees what they can and can’t work on in the interim and, this year, even after the incident, wolf policy didn’t make the cut.

“The predator issue was not on our list,” Schuler said. “We were told by our legislative leadership in a couple different situations that you can get updates on it, you can take it up as you wish, but that’s not your primary goal. Some people may read that wrong and say we’re not doing enough.”