Wildlife Organizations File a Lawsuit to Prevent Wolf Hunting in Wisconsin
A coalition of wildlife advocacy groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday to stop Wisconsin’s wolf hunt this fall and invalidate a state law mandating annual hunts, arguing the statutes don’t give wildlife officials any leeway to consider population estimates.
The lawsuit comes after hunters blew past their kill limit during a messy, court-ordered spring hunt in February. Conservationists deluged the state Department of Natural Resources with requests to cancel the fall hunt out of concerns it could devastate the wolf population.
DNR biologists recommended setting the fall quota at 130 animals. But the agency’s board voted this month to set the kill limit at 300 animals. Wisconsin’s Chippewa tribes are entitled to half the quota but refuse to hunt wolves because they consider them sacred, meaning the working quota for state-licensed hunters likely would be 150 wolves. Wildlife advocates say that’s still too many.
