By JOE BARRETT
Four wolves were reported killed by hunters in Wisconsin Monday even as wildlife groups took aim in court at the first legal wolf hunts in the Midwest in decades.
The Humane Society of the United States, which has successfully led legal efforts to stop the removal of the animals from protection under the Endangered Species Act, filed notice Monday that it would challenge within 60 days last January’s delisting by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The delisting cleared the way for the hunt that began Monday in Wisconsin and one planned to begin Nov. 3 in Minnesota.
Howard Goldman, Minnesota director of the Humane Society, said both states had rushed to draw up rules for a hunt almost as soon as the delisting occurred, with quotas in both states set too high to assure a long-term sustainable population of wolves.
“There’s no biological reason to take wolves in either state,” he said. “Our point is: What is the rush? They just came off the endangered species list. People care deeply about wolves. They’re not just stalks of corn.”
Separately, Minnesota-based Howling for Wolves and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a request with the Minnesota Supreme Court Monday for a temporary restraining order to halt the hunt scheduled to begin in November. A lower court last week rejected the request for a restraining order but agreed to hear the groups’ case, which argues that the rules for the hunt were rushed through without sufficient public comment.
“Killing these magnificent and iconic animals for sport by trapping and shooting is cruel and it is bad for Minnesotans in general and will diminish us,” said Maureen Hackett, founder of Howling for Wolves.
A spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources declined to comment on the suits. Some 23,000 people have applied for wolf-hunting licenses in the state, while a total of 6,000 will be issued, the spokesman said. The state quota for the hunts is 400 wolves, out of an estimated population of more than 3,000.
A spokesman for the Wisconsin DNR said the wolf hunt was legally sanctioned by state law and regulatory rules.
“If there are any change at the federal level, we’ll have to address that when that occurs,” said Kurt Thiede, Wisconsin DNR lands division administrator. He said at least four wolves had been killed by 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. The state quota is 201 animals out of an estimated minimum population of 850.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement that it doesn’t comment on pending legal action, while noting that wolves “are thriving in the Great Lakes region” and pledging to continue to monitor the population to ensure its success.
Wolves were driven to near the brink of extinction in the lower 48 states by the 1950s. They were placed under federal protection under the Endangered Species Act in the 1970s. A population introduced into Yellowstone National Park in the 1990s has been delisted in recent years, leading to hunts in several western states. The wolf population in Northern Minnesota has gradually spread into Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. An estimated 4,000 wolves now roam the region.