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Email: timberwolfinfonetwork@gmail.com
Email: timberwolfinfonetwork@gmail.com

Minnesota Supreme Court asked to stop wolf hunt

Article by: JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY , Star Tribune

Two wildlife groups have asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to stop the state’s first managed wolf that begins Nov. 3, arguing that the lower court was wrong when it ruled last week that the killing of 400 wolves would not cause irreparable harm.

The two groups filed suit against the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources claiming that state officials violated their own rules when they failed to give the public adequate chance to weigh in on the state’s hunting plan. The appeals court ruled last week that the case could go forward, but it refused to grant an injunction that would stop the hunt while the case is pending.

But without it, the hunt will be over before the legal challenge is even heard, said Collette Adkins Giese, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the wildlife groups that filed suit.

“I am hopeful that the Supreme Court will recognize what the Court of Appeals did not – that the shooting and trapping of 400 wolves is an irreversible harm,” said Giese. “Rushing to open a hunt this fall, the DNR slammed the door on meaningful public participation in a controversial management decision about wolf hunting and trapping.”

The apeals court said that the state legislature, not the DNR, was responsible for ordering the hunt. And DNR officials that there has been plenty of opportunity for public comment through the legislative process and other means. They also say that with a population ofp 4,000 wolves in the state, a quota of 400 is conservative and will not harm the population. The DNR will issue wolf hunting and trapping licenses to 6,000 hunters.

The second group is Howling for Wolves, which is behind the anti-hunt billboard and media campaign in the Twin Cities and Duluth.

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