-  Great Lakes Wolf Patrol. It's October 15th, opening day of Wisconsin's recreational sport hunt for wolves. Good morning, Wisconsin. This is Rod Coronado from Wolf Patrol coming at you from the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in a another wolf caution area. So we're here in the hound hunting party keeping an eye on them. We've also been hearing reports about wolves being poisoned with xylitol. So we're keeping an eye on the situation. This is about an eight truck hound hunting party.

-  [Male] Good job, good job, good job.

-  So it's July 1st, beginning of bear hound training season and one of the things that Wolf Patrol is doing out here is monitoring any illegal activity. NOWOLVS, look at that, see that license plate? These guys are coming in here, loading up logs full of Doritos and waffle cones feeding bears, conditioning them to accept human junk food and then they release packs of dogs to chase 'em.

-  Give me the film. Give me the film. You better not film me. You better not be filming me. You better not. You cannot, that's illegal.

-  That's illegal. Call the police.

-  Hey, go fuck yourself, you little cunt.

-  [Rod] We have a right to be here as much as you do.

-  You don't have a right to cut us off. We're trying to catch dogs.

-  [Rod] We're staying here.

-  You miserable fucking excuse for human beings.

-  [Rod] Keep on talking, buddy.

-  Little bitch.

-  [Rod] Keep on talking.

-  Snowflake little bitches.

-  This is what the rights of non-hunters look like in Wisconsin. We are citizens who want to legally monitor hunting activities on public lands. And simply by driving on this road, we haven't even gotten out of our vehicles, by driving on this road, these hound hunters feel entitled enough to block us in and threaten us. Welcome to Wisconsin. Welcome to the national forest lands, public lands in Wisconsin.

-  Thank you. So that's where we started evolving as an organization, as a movement, as a tactic. Rather than just being documentors out

there documenting these wolf hunts, we started legitimizing ourselves as people that report illegal hunting activities and trapping activities. I just bought this trap so I haven't used it yet. So here I go while I figure out its mechanisms. You know this is the way that I try to honor my ancestors by recognizing that what is being done to nature and animals today is still very much wrong as it was 100 years ago. Okay, that's pretty straightforward. We have to use his butt. So imagine that's the dog in the trap and were saying you can take the sleeve of your jacket, cover it up that way or maybe you just want to cover it up. But ideally, I'm thinking that this is something you're gonna do with two people.

-  [Female] Oh I get it. Jesus.

-  So as you can imagine, those are legal right now. These are everywhere in Wisconsin and Minnesota and Michigan. You know yeah, we aren't the dominant worldview. You know the dominant worldview says it's okay to kill whales, it's okay to slaughter wolves, it's okay to imprison people, it's okay to shoot unarmed black men. You know, that's not the society I will be a part of. If I am gonna live in this world it's gonna be living with the principles, ideals that I feel are a lot more compassionate and non-violent and better for the sake of not just indigenous people, but for the entire planet. Snares also are what they use. This is just one that I made 'cause I didn't want to buy it. And then the way that these work this is that once an animal goes through it, it just closes. And the tighter that they pull on it, the tighter the snare goes. For me, the answers lie in animals like wolves, in animals like coyotes and bison, you know? I've had my elders tell me repeatedly that every plant, every animal has something to teach us if we only learned how to listen. And so I think that that's what this is about doing. This isn't about thinking that we can save the wolves. This is about how the wolves are gonna save us.

-  [Radio] Balsam Lake Republican assemblymen Adam Jarchow has gotten complaints about a group called Wolf Patrol following and filming bear hunters and their dogs this summer. The group aims to protect wolves, but also opposes hunting bears with dogs. Jarchow has introduced a bill that would make it illegal to, among other things, follow, photograph or record hunters.

-  [Adam] If you don't like hunting or you disagree with the tactics or whatever you want to do, protest, write letters, go on TV, do whatever you want to do, but do not go out in the woods and intentionally follow hunters around and harass hunters because not only is it obnoxious, it's actually really dangerous.

-  [Rich] Penalties in Jarchow's bill include fines upwards of $10,000 and up to nine months in jail. Rich Kramer, Wisconsin Public Radio.

-  Yesterday began for us, as most Wolf Patrol days began. You know, we

got up at five o'clock in the morning and we went out into the field. The first bear baiting station we found was surrounded by wolf tracks. I'm looking at the tracks. I don't want to step on the sand. I don't want to leave my-

-  [Female] I wouldn't step on the sand, no.

-  Check out these prints. Look at these, this is wolf prints.

-  So a bear bait site is a hollowed out log about, it's pretty wide, and they also have this round top that's a log but it's not hollowed out. And then they'll place a very heavy rock on top of it. And inside of there, which only a bear could move and/or humans, there'll be the bait. So like the jellies and the stinky things that attract these animals.

-  In looking at bear baiting sites, we've definitely seen wolf tracks alongside bear tracks in those bait sites. And so what that tells us is that when the hunters then bring their dogs into these hunting sites or into these baiting sites that they're putting those dogs at risk of being, you know, killed by the wolves.

-  [Male] Get 'em you dogs, get 'em. Get 'em you dogs, good dogs. Good dogs. Such good dogs. Yeah, you picked a good one this time. The other one was really crappy. He's only 20 feet up.

-  At the end of the day, we went to our campground to set up a camp for the night and while we were setting up our tents, we heard hounds barking. So we got back in our truck and as soon as we left the campground in Polk County we immediately saw a hound truck with two hounds riding on top of the boxes, baying away barking and the hunter driving slowly down country roads looking to pick up a fresh bear scent. And so this continued for about 15 minutes before another vehicle showed up which began following us, began photographing us, and phone calls were made. And within 45 minutes, two Polk County Sheriff's deputies were speeding down the dirt roads, "Duke of Hazard" style towards us and we were parked on the shoulder of the road and they approached us. How's it going?

-  Hey, Deputy Hofftender here with the Sheriff's Department.

-  Yep.

-  So can I see your guys' IDs?

-  Sure.

-  What brings you guys out this way?

-  We're monitoring the bear hunting hound training season.

-  Okay.

-  [Rod] DNR knows we're doing it.

-  So how long have you guys been out and about looking at bear hunters?

-  Couple days, since Monday.

-  Okay. All right, well I guess I know the DNR knows that you guys are out here, but it's harassment. You guys can't be following bear hunters around and videotaping them.

-  What laws are we violating?

-  Hunter harassment law.

-  Oh, I'll take a citation for that.

-  I think it's a misdemeanor which means you go to jail.

-  I don't believe it's hunter harassment. I've spoken to my lawyers about it, but I'm not challenging you guys. We respect the law. We're not trying to break the law. We definitely are not trying to harass or intimidate or interfere with anybody's activities. I mean they're not killing anything, hopefully.

-  [Officer] Well, it's just training right now.

-  But this is when a lot of dogs get killed by wolves and these guys have been online threatening to kill wolves.

-  Okay, well we just got an email about this today, people up here. It's hunter harassment and we got called in and that's why we came out here. Okay? And granted, you did speak to the DNR, completely different agency. Our district attorney actually said that if there's an individual following around, filming, harassing, not letting the hunters do what they're wanting to do without having to watch their back from somebody filming or doing whatever they are, that we can cite them. Okay? In this situation, I feel as if I'm gonna have to do that.

-  That's fine. We welcome, we want to challenge it.

-  We just, we don't want to have confrontation. We want to be able to talk and have this be a civil act that we are doing.

-  After some back and forth, they told us that we were being cited under a hunter harassment law that they couldn't describe nor did they

have the citation number nor really any kind of statute understanding of, and they were having such trouble with it, that they couldn't even write us tickets for it. And so that if we wanted to, that we could go attempt to pick up those tickets the next morning at the county clerk's office.

-  Good morning.

-  Hi, good morning.

-  [Female] You have questions?

-  We are here to pick up our citations that were told were being-

-  Okay, I don't have any citations for you.

-  Okay.

-  I'm very disappointed.

-  [Female] Yeah, this is the first time someone's asking for a citation.

-  [Rod] What do I have to do?

-  [Female] I know. And it was Deputy Hofftender, is that correct?

-  [Rod] Yes and I left him with my phone number and I said if there's any questions, you know, we just want to make sure we're on the up and up.

-  We've come back to the site and now found it rebaited. And so the hunters have obviously come back and visited since and are in the process of attempting to continue to bring bears to this area. We'll be continuing to monitor this to make sure that wolfs and wolf tracks aren't appearing more to protect hound dogs as we know that this is the time of year when hunting hounds are most often killed by wolves. You know, I think one of the goals of Wolf Patrol is to sort of like allow people to see what the actual behavior of hound hunters is on the ground, such that they can make an educated decision about whether or not this is a cultural practice that we want to say is acceptable in the 21st century. You know, it's basically a 19th century practice that they've brought forward and claim all of this traditional history for. And I think what they're encountering now is 21st century technologies, long camera lenses, dedicated activists, Twitter, Facebook, other social media sources, you know, demonstrating that there are ways in which the 21st century like just isn't okay with these 19th century practices.

-  One of my first exposures to wanting to be an environmentalist was

spending time outdoors when we would go trout fishing. And that evolved into me wanting to go hunting as well. When I was, let's see,

16 or 17, can't exactly remember when, I was hunting and I spotted a buck. And when the wind shifted, he caught my scent and he just jumped up and turned around. And as soon as he jumped up and turned around, I drew my arrow and released it, and I saw it go right to where I aimed right behind the shoulder blade. And so I was confident I had made a clean kill. And so I just backed off, let the deer run and with a distance, I could see it running and starting to limp. And I figured, you know, I'm just not gonna chase it, I'm just gonna let it go bed down. So I came back in the morning and picked up the trail where I had shot the deer. And first thing I found was my arrow. And the arrow had a bent arrowhead and blood on it but it hadn't penetrated any further than about an inch and a half in the animal which indicated by the bend that I had hit the shoulder blade, not the vital areas of the heart and lungs that I was aiming for. So I instantly knew that I hadn't killed the animal, that I had just probably possibly shattered its shoulder blade or injured it. And so about a few days later when I was hunting in the area again another hunter said he saw the buck limping around and that made me feel really awful. So I was troubled, but I continued to hunt and I went hunting later that year in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and a group of three or four deer came by, including a buck, and I took another shot at it. And when I went looking for my arrow I couldn't find my arrow. I wasn't sure I had hit the animal. I didn't think I had. And then later that day or the next day, I was talking to another hunter and he said that he had seen a deer running around with the arrow flopping around just loosely just below its skin, not in a fatal injury, but enough to cause it some suffering. And so as soon as I heard that from him, I was done. I just never released another arrow on another animal because that's not what I was trying to do. You know, I wanted to go in there and have a sacred relationship with these animals. And I felt like, no, I'm just invading their homes and hurting them.

-  The Constitution of the state of Wisconsin says, "The people have the right to fish, hunt, trap and take game." However, there's a group of extremist anti-hunters out there who seem to, as far as I can tell, enjoy making hunter's lives miserable. One of the leaders of the Wolf Patrol is a convicted felon by the name of Rod Coronado.

-  So if I say that my intention is not to impede you, it's to document what you're doing so that I can bring that video and show the public that this is what I think of hunting and try to change public opinion or something, then I'm not guilty of any of this?

-  Well just because you say it, doesn't mean it so. We in the law oftentimes make judgements about what somebody's mental state is or allow juries to make those judgements so.

-  Rod Coronado from Grand Rapids, Wolf Patrol, speaking against.

-  Good afternoon, committee members. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to talk about this very important legislation. I am the founder and director of Wolf Patrol, and I don't think I've ever heard so much mudslinging against one organization in such a short period of time, but it could all be answered by us looking at the videotapes that we take on public lands of hunting activities that we believe negatively impact wildlife. There's no way we can find out about what's going on in our public lands unless we go out and look.

Just as much as a health department cannot find out about what's going on in a restaurant's kitchen without going in and looking in that kitchen, we can't find out information about what's happening on our national forest and our state lands, unless we go and look ourselves.

-  As someone who's trying to search through this, I'm saying, how can I believe this guy? I can't believe this guy 'cause I've heard some things about him. You seem to make sense when you talk to us, but your witness from others isn't telling the same story.

-  Well maybe if I took off my hat and you saw how gray my hair is, you could tell how old I am. And when I was a young man, I was full of piss and vinegar and I was a committed animal rights activist and a radical environmentalist, as radical as they got. So radical that I spent six years in prison for the actions that I chose to engage in. I accepted full responsibility for those actions. I paid with six years of my life. I owe tons of money still to the criminal victims, which I pay, you know, I've paid fines, I've been under federal probation. I follow the law. I'm raising two children. I have young people in my crew. I don't want to see them go to prison. But I do want them to find an avenue to affect change.

-  When they first emerged in the mid 1990s, the environmental extremists calling themselves the Earth Liberation Front announced they were the burning rage of a dying planet.

-  [Male] When it comes to violence, excuse me, tactics, Rodney Coronado is one of the animal rights movements most notorious tacticians.

-  Good afternoon, everybody. My name's Rod Coronado and I'm a member of the Earth First Movement and a member of Sea Shephard and Animal Liberation Front and just generally an all-around enemy of the United States these days. These labs, these fur farms, these factory farms, these stores, they weren't built for any other purpose than to kill animals. And so in that way, there's no purpose for that building on this planet. This is a device. Get a simple plastic jug which you fill with gasoline and oil.

-  [Male] Coronado firebombed a Michigan State University research lab in the name of animal rights. He also publicly admitted to at least

six other arsons.

-  He is probably the most celebrated celebrity among the real hardcore animal rights nuts. He admitted it in court as part of a plea bargain. He burned the place down and he went to jail.

-  But why burn a building down? Aren't you putting people at risk when you do that?

-  It's simply because after years of rescuing animals from laboratories, it was heartbreaking to see those buildings and those cages refilled within the following days. And for that reason, arson has become a necessary tool.

-  How do you decide after you've chosen a target to go about it? I mean, you just can't walk in the door.

-  Those are the types of things that take nights and nights and weeks and weeks of reconnaissance to ensure that you know in the one hour that you're gonna take action that there will be absolutely no risk to any living being.

-  [Radio] The city says the demolition tracker map will be updated each day as new houses are scheduled for demolition. Officials say the map lists more than 700-

-  I mean the times that my husband had to get on a plane and go wherever it was and get a lawyer and do all this, you know, Rod didn't know what we went through. He's our son. We're not gonna just let him rot in jail.

-  That was hard on everybody, but on her, it was really hard. It was a big burden for her. She must have a thousand questions, you know, as to why. She's trying to get answers to her why's.

-  There's some bad people out there. That's what I worry about. I mean most of them are good people. I mean they're going out there to hunt, that's their sport. But that's what I worry about is you get a crazy one, I really worry about Rod with that. Sometimes I've asked him, why do you do this? And I guess that's his beliefs. That's what he wants to believe in. And I support him in what he wants to do. Rod is an individual that's a very special individual. I happen to be fortunate to have a son like that, an individual that's so passionate about what he does and so disciplined beyond the average individual. It's just a shame that he can't be gainfully employed in some segment of this journey.

-  [Male] Yeah, I know. I mean he was on the run for a long time. Yeah, I'm sorry to bring up hard times.

-  I can't talk about that. He's gone through a lot, but you know what changed him was his son. 'Cause he cares about his parents, of course, he cares about his parents, but the son was the one that I think got him to thinking differently. I'm glad about that.

-  [Boy] I don't trust you. Okay, can you shuffle those now?

-  Good, 'cause I don't trust you.

-  I know, we're doing double shuffling right now. There's one, two, three.

-  [Rod] Golly, I'm getting all these mountain cards.

-  Oh you get to, you want mountain. You actually beat me and I tried. Well, you know what's interesting is that I've won every game of Magic I have ever played.

-  Which is two.

-  But it's true.

-  Ugh! See I bet if I try one of your arrows I would get closer at least. I'm not saying it's gonna make it.

-  Ooh. I get tired of hearing those bells. Ooh

-  Oh, did you hear that synchronization? That was awesome.

-  Oh damn.

-  Oh my God. Look what Uncle Andy did. That was funny, huh?

-  So about two weeks ago, I got an alert from the Michigan DNR that a wolf had been illegally killed and dumped on Michigan side of the line, but near the Wisconsin border. And that gave us reason to come and investigate hunting activities in this area, both legal and any possible illegal activities.

-  Rod had stated that over the CB Radio, Citizen Band Radio that he'd come across a pretty large group of hounders driving on Highway 55.

-  [Female] Okay so five was an understatement.

-  [Rod] That's five trucks right there.

-  [Female] I know.

-  That's another snowmobile with a dog box.

-  So we came across some trucks that were clearly hounding in the area. They had their dogs on the ground and you know we had seen that they were congregating.

-  [Female] Oh there they go.

-  And when we were driving back past the hunters, one of them was stepping out away from his truck into the center of the road that we were driving down.

-  [Female] Yeah, they got to be doing something.

-  This guy wants to talk to us. I'm gonna stop. You're gonna film it, right?

-  Yeah.

-  How's it going?

-  What are you videotaping?

-  Just the hunting activity from the public road here. There's been illegal wolf poaching in this area.

-  You think so?

-  We know so.

-  You do, huh?

-  Yeah, so we're just keeping an eye on things. But as long as everybody's doing things legal-

-  Harassing hunters is not legal anymore.

-  It isn't illegal. We're not harassing hunters but we're-

-  You are harassing us.

-  We're exercising our rights to be on a public highway.

-  If you run one of our dogs over, I will guarantee you you will not have a good day.

-  Okay, I won't, but we are not leaving this public highway and we're gonna keep an eye on all activities happening from this road.

-  We're gonna call the warden right now.

-  Please do.

-  I will, absolutely.

-  We'll wait around. Here let me give you my card so you can tell him who you're dealing with.

-  Absolutely, I would love to have your card.

-  What's your name?

-  Don't worry about my name.

-  Okay, I'm just being friendly and offering you mine.

-  No, you're not.

-  Okay, I'm stopping to talk to you.

-  I knew who you were.

-  Okay, well I was just asking who you were.

-  I'm telling everybody else. If you're gonna continue to be around here and harassing hunters, it's illegal.

-  We are not harassing anybody.

-  You are harassing us. Because we have a hunt going on right now.

-  Let the warden decide that.

-  And our dogs can't cross the road because you keep running back and forth.

-  Then let the warden know.

-  I will. I'm calling him now.

-  We'll be in this area. "Prohibitions, no person may interfere or attempt to interfere with lawful hunting, fishing, or trapping with the intent to prevent the taking of a wild animal."

-  I think, like we've been saying, it's gonna come down to intent and them being able to identify that we're intending to impede or obstruct them rather than intending to simply monitor from public roads.

-  "A, maintaining a visual or physical proximity to the person. B, approaching or confronting the person. C, photographing, videotaping, audio taping or through other electronic means monitoring or recording the activities of the person." How's it going? Did you get a hold of

somebody?

-  Yeah, the sheriff is coming.

-  [Rod] All right, we'll be here.

-  You cannot legally videotape a hunt in the state of Wisconsin right now just so you know.

-  Actually you can.

-  It's pretty pathetic when you got to have your little cameras to protect you guys.

-  Well we do because you have guns and dogs and threats.

-  Really?

-  Yes.

-  That makes you a fucking pretty sad person.

-  Well I guess I am.

-  A pretty sad person.

-  [Rod] I am.

-  I'll tell you what, you're fucking up our hunt is what you're doing.

-  [Rod] Really, just by watching it?

-  We tried being nice and telling you to leave.

-  This is national forest lands. These are public lands.

-  We got fucking dogs coming and the God damn trucks are running here full time.

-  It's a fucking-

-  If you're gonna sit here and fuck with me-

-  I'm not fucking with you. I'm trying to document-

-  Then get out of here! You're harassing me!

-  You're harassing. I'm harassing you?

-  You come right in the middle of our hunt. You see all of us here?

-  I'm not gonna say he was threatening me, but he said, "Just keep pushing it and you'll find out what kind of guy I am." And it kind of blew my mind 'cause I wasn't pushing anything. He came up to us.

-  We waited around for a good 45 minutes and no one came. And then we just continued on with our normal patrolling.

-  [Male] This is the beginning of the video deposition of Joseph B. Brown on August 14, 2018, the time 9:21 a.m.. Why did you file that complaint?

-  I filed the complaint because in working on this project for close to four years, three years at the time, I had been in situations in which I was filming the Wolf Patrol and their interactions with hunters and I had become aware of the belief amongst hunters that they should not be filmed or photographed on public lands.

-  When I first heard of this Wisconsin statute that provides such expansive protections to hunters, I was shocked and just very surprised that a law like this would pass because it's so clearly unconstitutional on its face.

-  [Male] When you're filming Rod Coronado, are you filming in a capacity as a filmmaker making your own film or are you filming with affiliation with Wolf Patrol?

-  I am not affiliated with Wolf Patrol.

-  This is the first case that challenges the constitutionality of prohibitions on filming and photography in the context of a hunter harassment statute. There have been challenges to other state's hunter harassment laws in the past. But to my knowledge, those states have not included provisions that are this draconian or this extreme.

-  The reason that I'm nervous about this law in general is because my proclaimed intent may not matter. I can tell you what my intent is, but if you don't believe me and you want to say that my intent is to interfere or to act in a criminal way-

-  [Male] It's never been your intent to interfere with a hunter?

-  Never.

-  [Male] Or impede a hunter?

-  Never.

-  [Male] Yet you're saying that you still feel that there's a chilling effect in the law?

-  Yes.

-  Freedom of speech is an incredibly broad protected category in US law and we're fortunate about that. So when statutes like this come around that try to limit speech activities, which include photography and filming, 'cause they're expressive activities, then the US Constitution gets involved.

-  I was up here about two weeks ago tracking. I've been tracking this particular pack ever since I've been coming up here. Okay, here's some wolf poop. You can see it's mostly, what's left here is deer hair.

These white pieces here are pieces of bone and these little dealies here are the tips of a hoof. There's another tip of a hoof right there. They eat it all up. I happened to come across a wolf drinking from the creek. And I mean as soon as she saw me, she took off. I didn't get a chance to photograph her or anything but I got my camera out and I was kind of scanning up on the ridge where I think she went up on and came across about 35, 40 yards away, five little wolf pups kind of just horsing around by the mouth of a den. And then we came back, were here two weeks later.

-  Main thing going through my head was just whether they were gonna be there, whether we were gonna see them.

-  Yesterday, we were out, creeped back very carefully on the opposite ridge to the north and just kind of staked out the den all day and we didn't see anything at all.

-  Okay, here we are at the den site. We were observing it all day yesterday, didn't see any sign of movement at all. So it's pretty clear they moved the pups out. There's no tracks or anything around the real soft sand. And got a cam placed about 15 feet away on a tree and see what we can get in the following weeks.

-  Yeah, so we're just right above the wolf den. And I just thought it'd be cool to see in these places where they lay what we can find and just pulling out little wolf hairs This is obviously a little path directly to the den.

-  One of my worries to going back there is, you know, finding signs that there had been people back there, boot prints right by the den or something. Luckily, we didn't see anything like that at all. So these guys, I'm pretty sure they're at least safe from the haters for now.

-  Hi, it's March 24th and we're out here with Wolf Patrol tracking wolves in the Bayfield County area. We're participating in the DNR's large carnivore count, which ends soon. And so what we're doing is following the lead of regional trackers who coordinate where volunteers track wolves. When we're done with the tracking survey at

the end of the day, we'll turn it into DNR and they'll comprise hopefully an accurate population assessment for the wolves in this area. Got two wolf tracks, three by three inches, three and three quarters and we're gonna say at least two animals.

-  [Male] Well thanks everybody for coming. Good to see everyone. And thank you to everybody who participated in the tracking program this year.

-  Block 25, eight surveys, 165.8 miles, 10 wolves in two packs. Block 118, seven surveys, 232.1 miles, 17 to 18 wolves detected in four packs, for a grand total of 925 to 952 wolves statewide.

-  Has there been any discussion of any potential contingency of action amongst forest service, fish and wildlife service or DNR, to like we start to see a lot of high numbers of bear hounds being killed by the same packs in the same areas? Is there a plan on how to address that differently?

-  I mean, we have our response protocols that we put in place but I don't know you mean by address it differently.

-  Signage in the field, restriction on training activity in high conflict areas.

-  We do post caution areas and we have a system set up to notify hunters where we are observing conflicts. The ability to train is included in state statute and therefore outside of the discretionary authority of our agency, as is the ability to close off areas.

-  Today, we are patrolling a wolf caution area, which is an area where wolves have killed bear hounds. And one of the reasons we came to this particular depredation site where wolves killed a hound two days ago was to investigate whether bear hunters are continuing to use dogs in an area where they've been warned that it's a danger to them. And so one of the things we're gonna do is we're gonna set up a trail camera and see what kind of images we can get. Maybe we'll see some wolves, maybe we'll see some bears. Who knows? Now I'm not gonna touch or tamper with his trail camera in any way 'cause that would be illegal, but I am gonna set up my own. Go ahead and set it to take some photos. And we'll get back to see what we see. All right, we are here and we're being blocked in by a truck. Good, good, get really close and we will do likewise. How's it going?

-  Hey, you want to smile pretty for the camera.

-  [Rod] Only if you do, buddy.

-  [Male] Oh, I already am, bro.

-  Sweet. We're on the shoulder of the road in national forest lands getting comment cards to comment on bear baiting and we have a bear hunter here who's blocking in our vehicle. He's parked about 18 inches from my bumper.

-  [Male] Just so you know, you don't have my consent to use any of that video.

-  [Rod] All right, you don't have my consent to use yours either then.

-  [Male] I don't have any video of you. Being an officer of the law, I can do anything I want.

-  Okay. When we leave or try to leave, I'm gonna say on camera to those guys, we are leaving, we are going to leave. Just to let you know, I'm gonna back up my truck and I'm gonna leave. If you choose to block us in. All right guys, we're leaving. We'll see you later. Oh, look at this. Just so you know this is illegal detention. You haven't identified yourself by showing your badge and I've already contacted my lawyers. I'm sure we got better lawyers than you. Yeah, but I'm trying to leave here and you're keeping me in. That's kidnapping. All right, hey, I'm game. This is what we want. We want attention because this is making publicity on your guy's sport that we're gonna shut down. Thank you. We're gonna try to drive around this guy. Oh God.

These guys. He didn't even bother to rake it or anything.

-  [Female] You should get a picture of the candy on the outside of the bait.

-  [Rod] Candy?

-  On the right side.

-  Other side.

-  [Rod] You can't see what's inside. Should have brought a flashlight. I don't know what that is. It looks like beer nuggets or what are those called?

-  [Female] Oh yeah.

-  Is that beans?

-  [Female] Yeah, kind of looks like it. Can I see?

-  Don't drop my phone in there.

-  [Female] I won't.

-  Hello pup.

-  Do you need more water?

-  [Rod] Hello pup pup. How many collars does he have on there?

-  [Female] Three.

-  [Rod] Two GPS and-

-  [Female] Come here. Here you go, girl.

-  That's the spot, huh? Yeah.

-  [Female] I think I got one with her like really cute and looking at you. Oh that was nice.

-  It can't be comfortable.

-  [Female] I know.

-  So when we see a dog like this alone, we see the reasons why there's a problem with wolves and dogs and there's a conflict that's preventable. You know, you just send out a loose dog like this into the woods where there's wolves, especially it's summertime right now, it's July. This is the time when wolves are leaving with their pups for the first time and they're gonna get a munched. Oh yeah.

-  Way all the way.

-  There we go.

-  [Rod] A pin came out.

-  You got her?

-  [Male] Yeah, just give me a second.

-  That's pretty cool. I definitely feel like, I feel like we want to push the envelope. You know, like we want... They feel definitely, you know, legally protected more in what they do, and if that's the case and they feel like they can call the law on us, I would like to see them to try to do that and see whether this county or, I'm sure Polk County has decided that they will prosecute under the new law, but I don't know that that's statewide. You know, I don't know that anybody else is gonna want that fight. I'm kind of curious. Once again, our strategy was to go into the field, document the hunt, to listen to those hounds and to try to get close enough to actually witness a hound hunt in progress.

-  I can't exactly remember how it happened, but we just went down, we

went down a road and we're like, oh shit, there's six trucks right there. Shouldn't we get pictures of the vehicles themselves?

-  [Rod] They're definitely in a scramble mode.

-  Yeah.

-  Oh yeah, that's totally a kid.

-  Yeah, that's a child.

-  There's seven vehicles here for sure.

-  Yeah, there's lots of dogs there.

-  [Female] Mmhmm, I know there's lots of dogs. There's four or five so they lost a couple trucks.

-  [Male] What's up, man?

-  All right.

-  [Male] Hey aren't you the guy that burnt down that animal lab in Michigan?

-  [Female] I see one, two, one, two, three, four, five, there's six.

-  [Rod] Excuse me?

-  [Male] Aren't you a convicted felon out of Michigan?

-  [Rod] Yes, sir, done my time.

-  [Male] Done your time?

-  [Rod] Yes, sir.

-  [Male] Once a felon, always a felon.

-  Are you a law enforcement officer? You said you were yesterday. I hear ya.

-  [Male] You can make your own decision on that part.

-  Okay, take care, guys. What was that? If you want to talk, I'll talk to you.

-  Why don't you tell your people what you're really about, Mr. Illegal Felon? If you're gonna put people on Facebook like that, tell them the real story.

-  That's why we're out here showing them the real story.

-  You edit everything out that's the real story. You do not have my consent-

-  [Rod] If you guys are on private land, we could not film you. You are on public lands. We have as right to be here as much as you do.

-  [Male] Yeah, you have a right to be here, but you don't have a right to chase us around. Hold on here, we got cops coming.

-  There was actually nothing that happened. It was more, I don't know, I think it was a flexing of muscles and like, these are my woods, I'm gonna call my police and-

-  And ultimately these bear hunters have never really been challenged in the north woods of Wisconsin. They don't really have a whole lot of regulation or oversight from the DNR or from any kind of local sheriff's department. And so they get away with a lot.

-  Here we go.

-  Hi there.

-  How you doing?

-  How you guys doing?

-  Really well.

-  Good. You guys know why I'm here, right?

-  [Rod] Yeah, sure. We waited.

-  So your group's called what?

-  Wolf Patrol.

-  Okay, and we are doing what?

-  Documenting.

-  No, not what, what kind of patrol are we doing right now?

-  Activities that negatively affect wolves. Wolves have killed 10 of these guys bear hounds in the last two months.

-  I've heard about it, yeah.

-  And when you look online, they hate wolves. They say S, S, S, shoot, shovel and shut up because they're killing our hounds.

-  So what's our goal?

-  Our goal is to stop unethical practices that are unsporting and also that negatively impact wildlife.

-  So is it the dogs in general?

-  It's the bear baiting in general.

-  [Female] It's the bear baiting and the affection of all the other animals that are around while the dogs are being trained.

-  In Wisconsin, this is the only state in the country where it's unregulated. You can have as many bear baits as you want in the woods. And what's been proven now and scientists have published papers is that it's altering the behavior of bears. They now are depending on food that's artificially placed out for them. They're not eating nuts and berries anymore. I think his questioning led him to the conclusion of understanding that there is a conflict issue in the woods happening between wolves and bears and hunters.

-  Nice talking to you guys.

-  You too.

-  [Male] Thank you for being civil.

-  You know, do you want my phone number personally, just so you can call me?

-  I think it's in there. If if Sergeant Curt spoke with you, he would've placed it in our system.

-  Okay.

-  You're one worthless son of a bitch.

-  [Rod] All right, buddy.

-  You are one worthless son of a bitch.

-  Why don't you go get a life? Yep, go.

-  I heard you're an Indian. Are you Indian? Come here, come to my council. If you're an Indian, you come to my council and we talk. I hear you're Indian, come on.

-  [Rod] Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa .

-  This is my council. Come to my council. Okay, this is what we do.

-  [Rod] All right, this is what we're doing.

-  I challenge you to a fight.

-  Okay.

-  A fight to the death.

-  Okay.

-  This is simple. If you are Indian, you accept the fight.

-  No, I don't.

-  You don't? You must accept, okay?

-  I'm not that kind of Indian, buddy.

-  [Male] This is simple.

-  Take the son of a bitch out of here.

-  I challenge you to a fight and the fight is to the death.

-  But why does it have to end with one of us dying? That doesn't make any sense.

-  That's my challenge. That's what I want to do.

-  I don't accept that.

-  It proves who is the toughest of the Indian.

-  Then you are the toughest, my friend because I don't want to kill you and I don't want you to kill me. The whole point we're here-

-  It don't seem to be no Indian to me.

-  The whole point we're here is to avoid killing of wolves, of bears, of people.

-  I will kill any wolf that I possibly can. I understand that it has to be legal and I do it. And this shit right here with the bear hunters having fun is a bunch of bullshit.

-  You mean us doing what, monitoring, photographing it? We have a

right to do it on public lands. This is all of our. This is your lands to run your dogs. This is your lands to run your dogs. This is our lands to take-

-  Then let us run our dogs without you doing these lights bullshit.

-  No, no, no, we won't do that.

-  It's just bullshit.

-  Okay, it might be bullshit for you, but you know what? My opinion might be that it's bullshit for you to run dogs, but I'm not stopping you 'cause you're legal. We're legal too.

-  You act like you're whole damn day want to tell me I can't run dogs. The Indian way, let's challenge to death.

-  I'd rather have a drinking contest with you.

-  I can't drink.

-  Okay, well I can't die.

-  It's the Indian way.

-  I respect your ways, but it's different from my own. I'm from the Pascua Yaqui tribe, the Yoeme nation and we do not-

-  I am from the .

-  All right, well, we don't need to fight to the death anymore.

-  I would like to.

-  I know and I respect your desire, your spirit, your heart. I can see it. I hear you guys talking on your radios, I see you out here. I know you believe what you're doing. I respect that. And that's why we're keeping a distance. We chose this site 'cause we don't want to follow you guys. We just want to park here and just watch what's going on.

-  We're on our way.

-  Have a good day, sir.

-  Take care. You're still low lives, both of you.

-  [Male] Have a nice day.

-  [Male] You bet.

-  [Male] It's gonna be fun watch this on YouTube again. We got quite a few followers that like us.

-  [Male] You guys could've just drove right by.

-  [Male] We got more followers than you do.

-  [Male] Oh I'll see it on YouTube 'cause I'm sure you crave the attention.

-  Yeah, well snowmobile.

-  [Female] Oh he just is pulling over.

-  Yeah, he could be turning around. We've got some hounders that are concerned about their dogs crossing the highway. So they got this guy in the Jeep right in front of us. He's got his GPS tracker keeping an eye on the dogs getting close to the road. And then there's a gentleman right behind us about 100 yards with a shotgun just in case the coyote or the bobcat the dogs are pursuing pops out of the woods. There's a bunch of snowmobiles crossing the highway there, you've got a hounder here. You can see how busy it is. This guy has a loaded shotgun behind us. It's very dangerous what these hound hunters are doing right now.

-  Well, I was in a different vehicle and what we were hearing over the radio was them getting really aggressive, calling us rat patrol, and right away, they knew who we were and started getting more and more aggressive.

-  One guy was saying, "You know, 10, 15 years ago, the cops wouldn't even be involved in stuff like this. We'd just kick the shit out of these guys on the road and that would be, we'd be done with it."

-  Nope.

-  Shit. Come on, what happened here, guys? Oh, it's in the battery box. Can you hand me the battery box?

-  [Matt] Yes, where's that? Oh, there it is.

-  [Rod] I'm gonna go around this guy. It's in here, can you find it?

-  [Female] Matt?

-  Yeah, sure.

-  You getting this on film?

-  [Female] Yeah.

-  [Joe] Maybe explain what's going on.

-  This guy's blocking us from going down a private road.

-  [Matt] Public road.

-  Public road, public road. This is a national forest road. You want to play games, buddy? We have no GoPros ready right now.

-  Hey, go fuck yourself, you little cunt.

-  This is a public road. We have right to be here as much as you do.

-  You don't have a right to cut us off and try to catch dogs.

-  [Rod] We're staying here.

-  You miserable fucking excuse for human beings.

-  [Rod] Keep on talking buddy.

-  Little bitch.

-  [Rod] Keep on talking.

-  Snowflake little bitches.

-  I've only heard aggression like that in bar fights that ended up in fist fights, you know? You don't usually hear that kind of talking out in daylight.

-  I've been around places that don't really like different people in their areas and they will get aggressive. Like some places don't like Indians in their area and they'll get really aggressive.

-  What are you doing here?

-  I'm keeping an eye on the people like you that are hunting bobcats and coyotes.

-  What's your name?

-  Rod Coronado.

-  You ain't Brad Coronado.

-  What'd you say, buddy?

-  It's legal.

-  I know it's legal.

-  We got a license to do this.

-  [Rod] What we're doing is legal too.

-  If you hit one of 'em, you're gonna get your ass kicked.

-  [Male] We're not stopping you from what you're doing. We are not stopping you from what you're doing.

-  [Rod] We are.

-  [Male] Go ahead.

-  [Rod] We are. As soon as he gets out of the way, we're gonna go up.

-  [Male] Go ahead.

-  All right, so we're in a situation here where we're being blockaded.

-  [Male] Go ahead, go ahead, hit her.

-  [Rod] No, no, I'm just showing how you're blockading the road here.

-  I hope you hit it. My wife works for the judge. Go ahead, buddy.

-  Good, good. Keep on talking. I'm just showing them how you're blockading the road illegally.

-  No, because you had it blocked up there.

-  We haven't blocked you. Look at this, guys.

-  [Male] Yeah I wonder what it would look like if I shoved that camera up your ass?

-  [Male] Hey, I didn't give you permission to film me.

-  Hey, what are you filming me for?

-  [Joe Brown] Public road, you got me blocked in.

-  Well yeah, we're stopping you to get the dogs through.

-  [Joe] It's a public road and you got me blocked in.

-  You're following us. You're riding our ass.

-  [Rod] We're on public roads in the national forest.

-  Ah, you're a weasel, shut up. Shut up, you weasel. Weasel, shut up.

-  I'm not shutting up. I'm gonna keep on talking. We aren't falling for your tricks anymore. We're gonna be here, we're gonna follow your ass, we're gonna keep on top of you.

-  Why don't you put that camera away and get out of the truck?

-  Why, so we can see what you're really like?

-  Yes. No, I'm a good guy. I'm an old guy. You want to take a fucking swing? Get out of the truck. I'll show you what are.

-  Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you? That way you could do what you normally would.

-  'Cause you ain't got no backbone, I do. We're gonna keep them in here. Block him in, we'll wait for the game warden to get here.

-  [Male] No, we got him.

-  We got him, we got him fucked.

-  [Rod] Good.

-  [Male] Snowflake little bitch.

-  You're brave guys with all your dogs and guns. Look at you.

-  [Male] You want to shut your fucking door? I don't give a fuck who you are.

-  [Female] Careful, you're gonna.

-  Just get the fuck out of my way.

-  Whoa, whoa, whoa.

-  Stop man.

-  [Female] Are you trying to kill him?

-  [Male] I'm gonna call the cops.

-  [Male] Be careful.

-  [Female] Just let us go.

-  Don't you run into me again.

-  [Female] Get in the car.

-  [Male] Get in the car.

-  [Male] The game warden's gonna come and arrest you for denting my truck.

-  [Rod] We'll see who gets arrested for running you over.

-  I didn't run you over.

-  It sure looked like it.

-  If I'd have run you over, mister, you'd have been run over.

-  [Male] I'm sorry about your truck, but they ain't smart enough to know better than to do that.

-  This is what the rights of non-hunters look like in Wisconsin. We are citizens who want to legally monitor hunting activities on public lands. And simply by driving on this road, we haven't even gotten out of our vehicles, by driving on this road, these hound hunters feel entitled enough to block us in and threaten us. When we try to resist and assert our rights as constitutional right holders in this country, they say we don't have these rights to be here, that we aren't allowed to be following them, we're not allowed to be on these roads and they're not allowing us to go. So they're detaining us illegally.

They're treating us like we don't have the same rights that they do and they're telling us that because they know people in the legal system that we're going to jail. Welcome to Wisconsin. Welcome to the national forest lands, public lands in Wisconsin.

-  [Joe] Okay, here he comes.

-  [Sheriff] Hi guys.

-  Hi, how you doing, sir?

-  Well we're here.

-  Good.

-  What goes on? Who are you?

-  I'm Rod Coronado with Wolf Patrol. I'm gonna show you my ID and my card, tell you what I'm doing. We're with a nonprofit organization called Wolf Patrol that does citizens monitoring of legal hunting activities. US Forest Service, DNR, are well aware of as being out

here today. I emailed them and let them know. We know that there is a law against harassing hunters and interfering or impeding with the hunt. So we do not intend to do that. But we do believe in exercising our rights to be on public highways and roads to monitor activities of people that are illegally hunting.

-  Okay, why don't you step out of the vehicle for me?

-  And when I got out of the car to step in the back so I could step up and show on the camera that we were being blockaded in, the gentlemen in this truck drove right up to me, laid on his horn, told me to shut my door. When I got out and shut my door, he came forward and touched me with his vehicle. And I was just like putting my hands up. And he was pushing, inching me out of the way. And I said he was too close to my truck for me to get in that way. So I'm trying to walk around this way, but I'm afraid that if I turn away from him, he's gonna run me over 'cause he's fricking already touching my body.

-  Okay.

-  I was afraid.

-  Okay so they block your vehicle?

-  And that's when I slapped his hood because I'm like, hey, you're gonna freaking kill me here. Yeah, so he was just asking me about how, they want to review the video. They're getting different stories obviously.

-  Well, the one thing, I'm happy to provide video but I don't want to relinquish all video. I'm a professional documentary filmmaker. I'd want to talk to my lawyers before I just give video away. But I mean, I certainly could show it all to you.

-  I love how the guys were counting all my criminal history to the police. "He burned Michigan State University. I want to see him. So you gonna arrest him? Are you taking him to jail?" It's like dude.

-  [Female] That sounds very inconvenient to me.

-  I know you used to be able to get people locked up that easily back in the day.

-  Again, we got a lot going on, but long story short, I don't want anything being deleted off from these cameras. I want it to be raw footage. Okay, so I did make a phone call to our sheriff. Okay, and he's currently making a phone call to the district attorney.

-  Okay.

-  Sure. Okay, well we'll go from there. All right, thank you.

-  [Female] Yeah, it's your professional rights.