Wolf control is illegal

2006-01-18 10:16

Mary Pemberton

Anchorage - Alaska's lethal wolf control programme under which hundreds of wolves have been killed is illegal, a judge ruled.

In a case going back to November 2003, Superior Court Judge Sharon Gleason on Tuesday ruled that the state failed to follow its own regulation when authorising the aerial wolf control programme, where pilot and gunner teams were allowed to shoot the wolves from the air.

Given the judge's ruling, the programme has been suspended, Matt Robus, director of the state Division of Wildlife Conservation, said soon after the judge issued her ruling. People with permits to kill wolves in the five areas of the state where the programme is under way were being notified, he said.

'Bound by regulations'

The court found "that the Board of Game failed to adhere to its own regulation regarding the control of predation by wolves when it adopted these aerial control plans", Gleason said in her 32-page ruling.

More precisely, the state failed to provide required justification for the programme, including previous measures that failed to work, Gleason said. The game board also failed to explain why alternative means for reducing the number of wolves would not work, the judge said.

"The Board is bound by its regulations," Gleason said.

The ruling was a long-awaited victory for Friends of Animals, an animal rights group that led the fight against the wolf-killing programme and previously had failed to get the judge to issue an emergency injunction to stop it.

"She has ruled that the wolf control programme is invalid and all the underlying regulations are invalid," said Friends of Animals president Priscilla Feral.

Controlled killing necessary

Governor Frank Murkowski said he expected the game board to work quickly to answer the judge's concerns.

"I stand firmly behind the state's predator control programmes, which are based upon sound science," Murkowski said.

The wolf control programme is aimed at boosting the number of moose and caribou in areas where residents say wolves are killing too many, leaving them with too few for food. State biologists estimate that Alaska has 7 000 to 11 000 wolves.

Since the programme began in 2003, more than 400 wolves have been killed. The state set a goal of another 400 this winter. The state issued more than 100 new permits last month.

- AP