WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, December 4, 2007
WildEarth Guardians Seeks Federal Court Intervention to Stop Catron County Wolf Trappings

The wild wolf population peaked at just 59 individuals, and 64 lobos have been killed or banished to captivity for livestock conflicts
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

Santa Fe, NM - Forest Guardians and Sinapu have asked a federal district court judge to prevent any further county attempts to trap wolves until their lawsuit challenging Catron County's anti-wolf ordinance is decided. The two conservation groups filed suit against the County Commission this past July, claiming that the Commission has unconstitutionally authorized itself to remove Mexican gray wolves from their own recovery zone in violation of the Endangered Species Act. Since the Commission passed Catron County Ordinance No. 001-2007 in February, it has targeted two wolves for removal, the alpha male and alpha female of the Durango Pack, AM973 and AF924.

Catron County's latest threats to trap AM973 on November 9, 2007 were what led WildEarth Guardians to seek a preliminary injunction. "We had hoped that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would put an end to the Catron County wolf hunt," said Melissa Hailey, one of WildEarth Guardians' attorneys on the case. "When the government neglected to file charges against the Commissioners knowing they were going after this important alpha male wolf, it became our obligation to act," she said. "We simply cannot afford another wolf lost from the wild."

Since Mexican wolves were first released into their recovery in 1998, the Fish and Wildlife Service has removed more wolves for conflicts with livestock than for any other reason. Today, 64 lobos have been killed or banished to captivity for livestock conflicts. With four members of the Aspen Pack currently under an agency removal order, that total number will likely rise to 68 by the end of this week.

Although the lobo population was supposed to reach 102 individuals by 2006, the wild wolf population peaked at just 59 individuals last December. Hailey says that's a level of removal that is neither scientific nor sustainable. "Our lobos are in a state of biological emergency due to killings and removals driven by human intolerance," Hailey says. "That Catron County seeks to further ratchet up wolf removals is not only illegal--it's emblematic of the outdated mindset that drove the Mexican gray wolf to its first extinction in the wild."

Native to New Mexico and the surrounding southwest, Mexican wolves once roamed by thousands until they were systematically eradicated from the United States by the mid 1900s on behalf of livestock interests. Despite their current status as endangered, a handful of ranching interests, including the Catron County Commission, still want to call the shots when it comes to wolves.

The Commission's plan to trap AM973 was thwarted only because he and his Pack are missing. Although Fish and Wildlife has not confirmed these wolves as dead, the agency has picked up no signal from their radio collars in about two weeks. Whatever the cause of these wolves' disappearance, WildEarth Guardians is certain that Catron County's trapping campaign will not end with the Durango Pack.

"The Commission's intolerance for lobos is another threat to wolves in Catron County," Hailey says. "If the court grants our injunction, the trappings will cease and this threat will subside. It's one small step towards getting the Mexican wolf program back on track."