If most hunters could get one wish, it would be to keep the Federal Government out of their state’s business. The residents of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho live with the wolf problem every day and know how to handle it, or at least control it. You can bet they howled the loudest with the reintroduction of the grey wolf inside their boundaries, yet could do little about it. Not surprisingly, a federal judge from Washington, D.C., where the wolf is some fantasy animal, ended the Wyoming wolf hunt. Here’s the latest from Outdoor Hub:
On Tuesday, a federal district court judge in Washington, DC ruled that Wyoming’s wolves be returned to federal protection, prompting wildlife officials to suspend the state’s forthcoming wolf season.
“Today, we want all wolf hunters and landowners to know that the take of wolves in Wyoming—hunting and lethal take provisions in Wyoming statute—are suspended because of the federal court ruling,” said WGFD director Scott Talbott in a statement.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service delisted the species from the Endangered Species Act in 2012, allowing a handful of states to manage wolf populations with hunting seasons. This quickly became a source of heated debate between hunters and animal rights activists, and in states like Michigan, both sides have introduced citizen-initiated proposals to either halt or protect the wolf harvest. This week’s ruling by Judge Amy Jackson was squarely in the favor of animal rights groups.
