Posted on 05/14/2007 7:40:31 AM PDT by george76
Catron County Manager Bill Aymar says officials only want to prevent problems by asking the federal government to remove a pregnant female Mexican gray wolf released on the county's border after it killed two cows elsewhere.
But Victoria Fox, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says the agency has no reason to remove the wolf.
The dispute over the animal -- designated F924 -- began as soon as it was released April 25 in southwestern New Mexico.
The next day, the county demanded it be removed as an "imminent danger." Fish and Wildlife rejected the demand last week.
The county has threatened to invoke an ordinance, passed in February, in which the county claims the right to remove wolves that are accustomed to humans or have a high probability of harming children or other defenseless people, physically or psychologically.
Fish and Wildlife Service officials say the Endangered Species Act supersedes a county ordinance, and warn that any unauthorized action against the wolf would mean federal prosecution.
The program to put endangered Mexican gray wolves back into the wild in Arizona and New Mexico calls for Fish and Wildlife to remove any wolf linked to three livestock killings within a year -- what's called "depredation" in federal speak.
This is how county officials see it: F924 already has killed two cows, and she's established a den half a mile from a herd on private land ...
"Then she would have three strikes and would have to be removed," ...
Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity says his group believes the county has chosen F924 "as something of a test case." Four environmental groups, including Robinson's, have filed notice they will sue to invalidate the ordinance.
(Excerpt) Read more at casperstartribune.net ...
People cannot harm wolves that are killing livestock on public land, that are eating a livestock carcass and haven’t been seen to kill it, or that attack a pet or working dog, even on private or tribal land.
Sure they can...just not legally.
Mexican gray wolves ...
sss
“These wolves don’t act like wild wolves,” he says. “These wolves are habituated to humans; they’re fed by hand in the beginning (after release); they see humans as a food source. They’re not conditioned to be afraid of humans.”
Just eating cows US wolves won’t eat. And dragging on a few anchor babies for America to spend untold tax dollars on in the future.
Catron County? That wolf is a dead canine walking.
Exactly. Practiced here with regularity but not by me yet.
In the crosshairs. Squeeze. Down. Get the shovel.
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