Animal Wellness Action supports judge’s decision to allow prosecution of Cody Roberts for cruelty to proceed
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy today hailed as an important step a written ruling by Sweetwater County District Court Judge Richard Lavery determining that Wyoming’s so-called “predator exemption” does not apply to the conduct of Cody Roberts, allowing his felony animal cruelty case to proceed to trial.
The written ruling rejects claims that the state’s predator exemption shields Roberts from accountability and affirms that Wyoming law does not authorize cruelty once an animal has been captured. The case stems from Roberts’ treatment of a gray wolf in February 2024, which drew global outrage after reports and images showed the injured animal being restrained, paraded through a bar, and ultimately killed. According to court documents, the wolf was also run down with a snowmobile and had her muzzle taped shut — acts of deliberate cruelty far beyond lawful capture.
“Today’s written ruling affirms a basic moral and legal truth: there is no exemption in Wyoming law that licenses torture of a captive wolf,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. “Grievously injuring a wolf with a snowmobile, taking her captive and tormenting her, taping her muzzle shut, and parading her through a bar is malicious cruelty and savagery. No matter where these facts are presented, good people will vote to convict.”
The case highlights the extreme and often unchecked brutality enabled by wolf management policies in Wyoming and other Northern Rockies states. Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy continue to press for accountability and broader reforms. The groups are leading a new federal legislative initiative to ban running down wolves and other mammals with snowmobiles and other motorized vehicles with the intention to harm them for pleasure. The
U.S. Reps. Val Hoyle, D-Ore.-04, Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.-17, Debbie Dingell, D-Mich.-06, and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.-08, introduced H.R. 6864, the Snowmobiles Aren’t Weapons (SAW) Act, bipartisan legislation that would make it plainly illegal to use a motor vehicle to intentionally hurt or kill wolves and other species on federal land. The SAW Act establishes clear federal penalties for using vehicles as weapons against wildlife, while preserving an exception for situations involving imminent danger to human life. Rep. Hoyle is the ranking Democrat on the Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries subcommittee in the U.S. House and represents a rural Oregon district with a population of native gray wolves. Rep. Dingell’s husband, the legendary congressman and sportsman John Dingell, was the author of the Federal Airborne Hunting Act of 1971, restricting the use of aircraft to run down wildlife.
Roberts’ trial is scheduled to begin March 9, 2026.