Court order suspends trapping and lethal control of Wisconsin wolves

 

 

 

 

 

August 23, 2006

 

 

 

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The Spooner Advocate

 

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Spooner, Wisconsin 54801

 

715-635-2181 

 

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The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and its partner, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Wildlife Services, have suspended all trapping and lethal control of depredating gray wolves following an August 9 court order issued by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

“Wisconsin is committed to a self-sustaining, healthy population of wolves, but occasionally wolves cause problems that have an impact on the livelihood of Wisconsin citizens -- such as farmers and ranchers,” said Signe Holtz, director of DNR’s Bureau of Endangered Resources. “The department is very disappointed in this action, which will reduce our ability to effectively deal with depredating wolves, and may erode support toward wolves by people in rural communities.”

The DNR and USDA-Wildlife Services will continue to assist landowners experiencing wolf depredation using nonlethal methods and scare devices such as flashing lights, noise makers, rubber bullets, pyrotechnics and special flagging called fladry.

“Trapping and lethal control has always been a last resort management option after non-lethal methods have proven ineffective,” said Holtz.

The DNR will continue to reimburse people for domestic animal losses caused by wolves.

 

The USDA-Wildlife Service also will continue to investigate and provide advice on alternative means for reducing wolf depredations.

 

For people to be eligible for reimbursement of their losses, the depredations need to be verified by USDA-Wildlife Services.

 

People who suspect wolf depredation should call USDA-Wildlife Service, 1-800-228-1368 in northern Wisconsin or 1-800-433-0688 in central and southern Wisconsin.

Under Judge Kollar-Kotelly’s order, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was ordered to suspend its permit to the state, which had allowed the lethal taking of wolves depredating on domestic animals.

 

The order was issued in response to a lawsuit filed by the Humane Society of the United States and other organizations.

 

The permit had been granted in late April by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to allow the state to actively the wolves using lethal means if necessary.

Wolves are listed as protected wild animals by the state of Wisconsin, but are still listed as endangered by the federal government.

 

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service began the process to delist wolves in the Western Great Lakes States from the federal list of threatened and endangered species in March 2006.

 

The process would eventually return all management to the states in that area, including Wisconsin.

The injunction on the permit in Wisconsin should not affect the delisting process, the agency said, which is still continuing and could be completed by early 2007.

Special permits from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service for lethal controls on wolves will not be needed once delisting is completed.

 

 

 

Copyright 2006, The Spooner Advocate.