WASHINGTON D.C. (WTAQ) – The official status of grey wolves has become a political football, after a federal judge returned the animal to the federal endangered species list this month.
Certain members of Congress immediately jumped into action after the ruling, to try and pass a law to repeal the endangered status.
Now, the Center for Biological Diversity has filed a petition asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reclassify the wolves as a “threatened” species, in the hope of retaining at least some of the protections that lawmakers are talking about repealing.
Agency spokesman Gavin Shire says they’ll review the petition.
Where this puts Wisconsin’s 3-year-old wolf hunt is anybody’s guess — but after the judge’s ruling, we know that hunters can no longer shoot wolves. And neither can farmers who lose livestock and crops due to wolf damage.
Lawmakers from the Great Lakes states and Wyoming have proposed lifting federal protections within their states — thus putting the animal back under state control.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
