Mexico to Reintroduce Wolves Near U.S. Border
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Center for Biological Diversity
February 2010

The livestock industry isn't happy about the reintroduction, to say the least, but any wolves that wander into the country will enjoy the full protection of the Endangered Species Act, unlike the "experimental non-essential" wolves already in the Southwest.

As early as this month, the Mexican government will reintroduce five endangered Mexican gray wolves to northeastern Sonora, leaving the wolves within easy roaming distance of the Sky Islands ecosystem in southern Arizona and New Mexico. It's a good move for the wolves, which would greatly benefit from connectivity between habitat in Mexico and in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area further north.

The livestock industry isn't happy about the reintroduction, to say the least, but any wolves that wander into the country will enjoy the full protection of the Endangered Species Act, unlike the "experimental non-essential" wolves already in the Southwest.

Mexico's move comes just as the latest count of Mexican wolves in the United States dropped dangerously low, to just 42 animals -- ten less than were counted last year -- possibly due to inbreeding depression stemming from past government wolf trapping and shooting that reduced the population's genetic diversity

Late last month, the Center for Biological Diversity went to court to save the persecuted animal, filing suit to force a federal response to our petition to reshape and reinvigorate the Mexican gray wolf recovery effort.

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