Last March, the administration issued a rule asserting that the wolf population in the Rocky Mountain region had recovered sufficiently for removal of the species from the Endangered Species Act. This led to the killing of 110 animals in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming by hunters and state agents.
Early in September, however, Donald Molloy, a U.S. district court judge, in a victory for the Natural Resources Defense Council and 12 other groups that petitioned the court, stopped the killing of wolves by granting a preliminary injunction restoring their federal protection, pending review of the full case.
The decision of the Bush Administration is timely as it will prevent a massive public hunt of wolves during the fall months, on a scale not permitted in over three decades. If the killing of wolves had continued, it would have eliminated any enhance for interbreeding among wolf populations, jeopardising their long-term recovery in the U.S.
October 2008
