Court Ruling Places Wolves Back Under Federal Protection
Article about: Animals Under the Endangered Species Act, Wolf Protection, Wolf Re-Introduction, Wolves
Wolf packs living in the northern Rockies were issued a temporary reprieve this past summer when a U.S. District Court judge placed the animals back on federal protection, pending a court case challenging the animals de-listing.
Several leading conservation groups brought suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, for the agency’s attempt to strip the animals protection under the Endangered Species Act. The de-listing of the animals supported by the Bush administration enabled hunters, ranchers, and anti wolf opponents to kill over 100 of the predators, before the temporary injunction halted the killing.
Wolves once roamed in large numbers throughout the entire United States but were largely poisoned, trapped and hunted to near extinction by early settlers. Because of this mass extermination wolves were re-introduced and supported by a variety of conservation groups. A small portion of wolves have re-colonized areas of the United States by simply crossing over from Canada.
In order to protect this valuable and intelligent predator, they should remain under the protection of the Endangered Species Act. However, the Bush administration opted to strip the animal of its legal protection and turn over management of the animal to state wildlife agencies. This simply means taking the animal and controlling its numbers through hunting. This would definitely not ensure the long term conservation of wolves, especially in places like Wyoming, where the animal is still allowed to be shot on sight all year round.
Other Rocky mountain states like Idaho and Montana also offer little or no protection for wolves. In fact in Idaho, wolves can be killed for merely annoying or worrying livestock owners. There has even been calls for starting a poisoning program again,
using the dreaded and lethal strychnine agent.
The issuance of a temporary injunction to halt the indiscriminate killing of wolves in the Rockies region is a good first step toward federal protection again. If we are going to learn from past mistakes, we must never allow the grand scale extermination of an important species such as the wolf ever occur again.
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