Wildlife advocacy groups in Wisconsin are filing a lawsuit on Tuesday to stop the Wisconsin grey wolf hunting and trapping season scheduled to start in November, in addition to reversing the state mandate requiring a hunting season, according to reports.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the groups such as Animal Wellness Action, the Center for a Humane Economy, Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife, and Project Coyote would file the lawsuit due to their claim that the officials in the state were “reckless and politically motivated” when they created the kill quota of 300 wolves for the fall season.
A three-month-old Canadian timber wolf is seen at Sainte-Croix the animal park on July 29, 2021, in Rhodes, northeastern France. (Photo by JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN / AFP) (Photo by JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN/AFP via Getty Images)
The group claims that killing 300 wolves on top of the 218 killed in February would risk their survival and cut their numbers in half. The Sentinel, who reviewed the documents, said Defendants in the suit are the Natural Resources Board and the Department of Natural Resources. The kill of 218 wolves was 83% above the state-licensed quota.
The report added that the lawsuit would allegedly claim:
The lawsuit alleges the political appointees on the NRB – including Fred Prehn of Wausau, whose term expired May 1 but has refused to vacate his seat for an appointee of Gov. Tony Evers – disregarded the recommendations from professional staff at the DNR and instead set an ‘arbitrary and unsustainable kill level without regard for the health and well-being of the wolf population or sustainable ecosystems in which the wolves play an integral role.’
…
The lawsuit asks the Dane County Circuit Court to overturn the law, reverse the quota set by the Board and enjoin the DNR from issuing licenses for the November hunt.
“The Natural Resources Board should know its role – to oversee and ratify the decisions of the professional staff at the Wisconsin DNR,” AWA’s Wisconsin state director Paul Collins said in a statement. “Instead, the Board has hijacked wolf management. The courts cannot allow this arbitrary and capricious decision-making to drive wildlife management decisions in Wisconsin.”
(PASCAL POCHARD-CASBIANCA/AFP via Getty Images)
In a statement, Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife founder Melissa Smith said, “The combination of the February hunt and the planned fall hunt could result in a 60% decline in Wisconsin’s wolf population.”
The wolf is no longer under Endangered Species Act protections. In Wisconsin, the wolf population has steadily risen over the years. DNR reports estimated numbers:
- 25 in 1980
- 34 in 1990
- 248 in 2000
- 704 in 2010
- 1,195 in 2020
“That is extraordinarily reckless and cannot be allowed to happen. This is a species fresh off the federal endangered species list, with a current federal legal challenge arguing that the delisting itself was not warranted,” Smith added.
Follow Jacob Bliss on Twitter @jacobmbliss.
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