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ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS ARE EMPLOYING A NEW SET OF TACTICS TO THWART HUNTERS FROM TAKING DOWN WOLVES, BEARS, AND OTHER GAME.
STEPHANIE LOOKED IN her rear-view mirror and watched as the black Suburban descended upon her Jeep. She punched the accelerator in an effort to put some distance between the two vehicles, but the Suburban kept gaining. Matthew, riding shotgun, turned in his seat to watch it.
"She's trying to come up beside us," Stephanie said.
The Suburban swerved hard left, then right, nearly hitting another vehicle. A forty-something woman was driving. Her face was an angry blur, her mouth open and shouting. She lifted an iPad, evidendy in an attempt to capture some photos or video of Matthew and Stephanie.
"She forgot to turn it around," Matthew said as the hulking Suburban sped up to them. "She's taking pictures of herself."
Stephanie kept her eyes on the road as she hit the gas again. When they reached a four-way stop on the two-lane road they had been driving along, she turned right to return to their home base in the village of Barron, a Wisconsin farming community north of Eau Claire. The woman in the Suburban made a U-turn and headed in the direction she had come from.
Stephanie and Matthew (who didn't want their last names used for security reasons) could pass for brother and sister. Both are 25, slight, dark haired (Stephanie's has a wide streak of blue through it), and look younger than they actually are. And they both share a passion for protecting wild animals - especially wolves. It was December 2014, about a month after the two had joined forces with an outfit called "Wolf Patrol," founded by Rod Coronado, the legendary eco-warrior - or, as some might say, infamous eco-saboteur. Wolf Patrol observes and documents wolf hunts in the United States with the goal of exposing the cruelty of wolf hunting. The idea is to help change public policies and, when necessary, reveal illegal activities on the part of hunters. Stephanie and Matthew had been on a hunting observation mission that winter day, which is what got them involved in the high-speed chase.
Earlier that day, Stephanie and Matthew had come across a group of hunters parked...