Free Republic

(Reuters) - An appeals court has refused to block wolf hunts planned in Idaho and Montana while conservation groups press a legal case against an unprecedented act of Congress that lifted federal protection of the animals. More than 1,500 wolves in Idaho and Montana were removed from the U.S. endangered species list, giving the two states largely unfettered control over the animals, in legislation attached to a stopgap budget bill Congress approved in April. The delisting came amid a legal battle between environmentalists and the U.S. government over whether wolves, which were hunted, trapped and poisoned to near extinction decades...

ANCHORAGE -- An animal rights group failed to persuade a judge Thursday to immediately suspend Alaska's aerial wolf control program, which it likened to a slaughter. Friends of Animals sought to have the program, authorized in five areas of the state, suspended until May 16 when the issue is scheduled for trial. Superior Court Judge Sharon Gleason refused to issue a temporary injunction, saying she needed more time to review new concerns raised by Friends of Animals. "It is essential to me to knock this wolf program out," said Priscilla Feral, president of the Darien, Conn.-based group. "It is a...

The president of the lead group opposed to Alaska's latest wolf-control plan exhibited typical behavior Friday when she engaged in a bit of extremism following a sound court ruling that allows the program to proceed. She said she hoped the state would not "rush out and annihilate the wolves." That, of course, is not the state's plan. About three to four dozen wolves in a small portion of the state near McGrath will be killed, with the aim of improving a moose population whose numbers have consistently remained too low for that community's subsistence needs. A few dozen wolves likely...