Local prosecutors continue to investigate whether felony animal cruelty charges are warranted in the now year-old case of a western Wyoming man accused of badly injuring a juvenile wolf with a snowmobile and then showing off the wounded animal in a Sublette County bar.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department took the lead in responding to the Feb. 29, 2024 incident. The agency’s investigation and subsequent citation were quickly adjudicated without public notice: Daniel resident Cody Roberts was fined $250 for possessing the wolf, though steeper penalties could have been assessed if the warden opted to send the case to court.
At the time, Game and Fish officials contended in a statement that “animal cruelty charges are not applicable to predatory animals.” However, not everyone agrees with that legal assessment.
Once the incident became public a month later — attracting immeasurable scorn, but also death threats from around the world — Sublette County Sheriff K.C. Lehr and Attorney Clayton Melinkovich launched their own investigation.
“Can there be additional charges?” Lehr told WyoFile in April 2024. “I’m looking at that right now in consultation with our county attorney.”
One year and five days later, that investigation is ongoing.
“It is still active,” Melinkovich told WyoFile on Monday. “It’s not just pending — and it’s not like it could be pending forever.”
Since the case remains open, Melinkovich cannot disclose exactly what has taken so long, but he attributed it to forces beyond his control.
“Investigations take time, especially when you involve third-party labs,” the county attorney said. “Anytime you’re using outside entities to process evidence, it takes time.”
The lab results — of whatever is being tested — are now in, he said. But Melinkovich, like many other county attorneys, is overrun by his caseload. In early February, a heinous murder occurred within his jurisdiction: Big Piney resident Dakota Farley was shot and killed with a compound bow allegedly fired by his “closest, most trusted” friends, the Pinedale Roundup reported.
Roberts’ treatment of the wolf was moved to the backburner.
“In a triage of priorities, it is not at the top of the list right now,” Melinkovich said.
Existing law
Still, prosecutors will eventually decide whether to decline charges or bring the infamous incident, which included a stop at the Green River Bar, to court, he said.
“Charges that could apply would be felony animal cruelty,” Melinkovich said. “The statute says ‘an animal’ and ‘an animal’ includes a predatory animal.”
According to Melinkovich’s interpretation, the Wyoming Criminal Code has an exemption for predatory species in the animal cruelty laws, but only for hunting purposes. But a person who abuses an animal, he said, is not fully exempted from the felony animal cruelty laws — including cruelty toward a wild predatory animal.
Wyoming Game and Fish wardens are also authorized to enforce those felony animal cruelty statutes, Melinkovich said.
Felony animal cruelty is committed in Wyoming if a person, “knowingly, and with intent to cause death or undue suffering, beats with cruelty, tortures, torments or mutilates an animal,” according to Section 6-3-1005 of the criminal code. The potential punishment is not more than two years in prison, a fine of up to $5,000, or both.
Citing Sublette County’s investigation, Game and Fish officials declined comment.
“The Wyoming Game and Fish Department cannot comment on pending or ongoing litigation within or outside of our jurisdiction,” Chief Warden Dan Smith said in a statement.
Although there are differing interpretations of the Wyoming Criminal Code and what Roberts could have been charged with, lawmakers took steps in recent weeks to shore up perceived inadequacies.
And new statute
On Monday, Gov. Mark Gordon signed into law House Bill 275, “Treatment of animals,” brought by Jackson Republican Rep. Andrew Byron. The signed act creates the authority for Game and Fish wardens to enforce a new offense for torturing, tormenting, mutilating or causing undue suffering to wildlife — including predatory animals and predacious birds — that have been taken into possession. Violations start at a misdemeanor, but second or subsequent offenses are a felony.
Because it’s just becoming law — the effective date is July 1 — Roberts, who possessed the wounded wolf in 2024, could not be charged for that new violation, Melinkovich said.
House Bill 275, which was dubbed the “clean kill bill,” passed its committee and floor votes by wide margins every step of the way. The overwhelming support throughout the legislative process was heartening for Paul Ulrich, a Sublette County oil and gas industryman and fishing guide who co-founded a group, Wyoming Sportsmanship, that pushed the bill.
“It’s a big deal for Wyoming,” Ulrich told WyoFile. “Our goal was to ensure that our statutes reflected our ethical philosophy, and I think in large part that was achieved.”
Ulrich did not want to get into the middle of the Sublette County-Wyoming Game and Fish disagreement over existing law, but he stood behind the need for reform.
“I believe that up until two days ago, the statutes were inadequate,” he said Wednesday. “That’s the very reason we pressed and pushed and gained so much support for House Bill 275. The bill makes a very clear statement that torture of any of Wyoming’s wildlife is unacceptable.”
Some wildlife and sportsmanship advocates maintain the law still falls short.
Roberts’ case put a spotlight on the legal-in-Wyoming practice of running down coyotes and other species with snowmobiles and striking exhausted animals. It’s how the Sublette County man acquired the wolf: He struck it until it was “barely conscious,” according to Game and Fish officials.
There were two failed attempts in the Legislature to prohibit this brutal form of hunting, both spearheaded by La Barge Republican Rep. Mike Schmid, whose district includes Daniel and the Green River Bar.
“I’m proud of Mike [Schmid] for standing up for what he believes,” Ulrich said. “A lot of people in Wyoming agree with him, that we have more work to do. And I’m one of them.”
Cody Roberts — the man whose actions prompted an ongoing investigation, creation of a new law and push for creating more — did not respond to WyoFile’s request for an interview. To date, his account of what happened has never been told.
The post Felony animal cruelty probe still ‘active’ one year after Wyoming wolf’s torture, prosecutor says appeared first on WyoFile .