Hunt for two Mexican gray wolves temporarily halted
(12-18) 14:09 PST TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) —
The hunt for two Mexican gray wolves blamed for killing livestock has been
temporarily called off, federal officials said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued kill orders three weeks ago
after the wolves were implicated in a number of livestock attacks.
Attempts to discourage the wolves from preying on livestock have failed.
It’s the first kill order since the endangered animals were reintroduced
to Arizona’s Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest five years ago. But
government hunters — the only ones authorized to kill the two wolves —
have been unable to track the predators in the area, said Dan Stark, a
wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“We’ve had pretty tough weather conditions up there, and that’s some of
the roughest country in the forest,” he said.
Environmental groups have protested the kill order and asked Interior
Secretary Gale Norton to intervene and spare the wolves. She has not
responded.
The rules of the reintroduction program allow wolves that repeatedly prey
on livestock to be killed. Similar rules apply to gray wolf reintroduction
in the Northern Rockies, and more than 100 wolves have been killed there
since the program began in 1995.