Court Refuses to Stop Killing of 400 Minnesota Wolves This Fall

12.10.12

For Immediate Release, October 10, 2012

Contact:

Collette Adkins Giese, Center for Biological Diversity, (651) 955-3821 Deb Balzer, Howling for Wolves, (612) 481-1571

Court Refuses to Stop Killing of 400 Minnesota Wol

Court Refuses to Stop Killing of 400 Minnesota Wolves This Fall - Court Refuses to Stop Killing of 400 Minnesota Wolves This Fall MINNEAPOLIS— The Minnesota Court of Appeals today denied a motion for a preliminary injunction, filed by conservation groups, seeking to stop wolf hunting and trapping this fall. The decision allows hunting and trapping to go forward, pending the court’s final ruling early next year on a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Howling for Wolves over the state’s failure to take formal public comment on the hunt. “I’m deeply disappointed by the court’s decision, which unleashes 6,000 hunters and trappers to go out and kill 400 wolves,” said Collette Adkins Giese, a Minneapolis-based attorney with the Center. “It weighs heavy on my heart that hundreds of wolves will be shot or suffer and die in traps and snares.” Minnesota’s wolf-management plan promised that wolves would not be hunted or trapped for five years after the removal of their federal Endangered Species Act protection. But the state’s legislature eliminated that safeguard last summer in a rider attached to a must-pass budget bill. After wolves lost federal protection in January, Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources issued rules allowing a fall hunt. But the state agency refused to provide formal public notice and opportunity for comment, instead offering only an online survey. Nearly 80 percent of survey respondents opposed the wolf hunt. “The Department of Natural Resources has been dead set on killing wolves and continues to bend to pressure from the small segment of the public that wants to kill wolves,” said Maureen Hackett, president of Howling for Wolves. “Although we are disappointed by today’s decision, we will continue to call on the Department of Natural Resources to start prioritizing conservation and stop ignoring the pleas of thousands of citizens who oppose wolf hunting and trapping.”