Don Jenkins
Capital Press
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is recommending a Whitman County farmer who shot and killed a wolf be charged with unlawful taking of an endangered species.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is recommending a Whitman County farmer who they say shot and killed a wolf be charged with unlawful taking of an endangered species.
Department investigators confirmed through DNA tests late last week that the adult male recovered Oct. 12 in a Palouse farm field southwest of Pullman was a gray wolf, not a hybrid.
Gray wolves have been taken off the federal endangered species in the eastern one-third of Washington, but remain on the state list. Unlawful taking of a state endangered species is a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.
“It did not appear the wolf was in the act of attacking livestock or human life, which obviously would be a mitigating circumstance to the charges,” the department’s enforcement chief, Steve Crown, said Tuesday.
WDFW has turned over its report to the Whitman County Prosecutor’s Office.
Prosecutor Denis Tracy said Tuesday he has not decided whether to file charges.
“I always take police agencies’ recommendations seriously. However, I’m required to conduct an independent analysis of the case to make an independent decision,” he said. “I am taking some time to carefully review it and to carefully review what the law is.”
Tracy declined to identify the suspect.
Both Crown and Tracy said they didn’t know of anyone who has been charged with killing a wolf since the animals returned to Washington. The first breeding pack in the state was confirmed in 2008.
Crown said investigators had not determined whether the wolf shot in Whitman County belonged to a pack.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Brent Lawrence said Tuesday no arrests have been made in the October killing of an adult female belonging to the Teanaway Pack in Kittitas County.
The animal was found by state and federal wildlife officials Oct. 28 in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. The female was wearing a telemetry collar and was shot in the hindquarters. Investigators suspect she might have been killed around Oct. 17.
USFWS is leading the investigation because the shooting occurred in the two-thirds of the state in which wolves are federally protected.
An unlawful taking of a federal endangered species is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine. Conservation groups have offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to a conviction.
State game investigators cleared a hunter of any wrongdoing for shooting at a wolf Oct. 30 in Stevens County. The hunter said he fired as the wolf approached him. The animal ran way, but the hunter said he thought it had been hit.