Demand that the FWS Retain Protections for the Gray Wolf under the Endangered Species Act
Action Alert from All-Creatures.org

FROM

National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS)
August 2013

ACTION

The FWS is accepting public comments until September 11, 2013. Please write to the FWS to encourage it not to remove the Gray Wolf from protections under the Endangered Species Act.

Sign an online petition (copy/paste URL into your browser):
http://www.kintera.org/c.cuIXJjNVKfL2G/b.8102071/k.90D5/National_
Issues/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=cuIXJjNVKfL2G&b=8102071&aid=519966#.UgPKgBao78v

And/or better yet, make direct contact:

You need to send your comments on this issue to the FWS directly. There are two ways you can comment before the Sept. 11, 2013 deadline. You can go to the online form for submitting comments and either write your own comments or cut and paste the sample letter below into the comment area.

Alternatively, you can print out this letter—or write your own—and mail it to:

Public Comments Processing
Attn: FWS–HQ–ES–2013–0073
Division of Policy and Directives Management
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Dr., MS 2042–PDM
Arlington, VA 22203

You must include the following docket number on your mailed comments: FWS–HQ–ES–2013–0073

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

FWS’ Rule Proposal to Remove the Gray Wolf from the Endangered Species

The FWS has issued a proposed rule to remove the gray wolf from the threatened and endangered species list, which will turn the management of the gray wolf population over to individual states. In 2011, the FWS turned over gray wolf management to Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Since then, the number of human-caused mortalities in those states has steadily increased each year, and the total gray wolf population there has been reduced by nearly 25 percent since 2010.

The FWS bases its proposal on new interpretations of the historical range of the gray wolf and the reclassification of the Eastern Wolf as a separate species from the Gray Wolf, instead of its current classification as a subspecies of the Gray. While the reclassification allows the Eastern Wolf to avoid the Gray Wolf’s fate, it gives the FWS the maneuverability to argue that the current gray wolf range and population levels are sufficient to warrant a return to state management. However, there is a significant portion of the historical range of the Gray Wolf even without the eastern United States where wolf population levels remain extremely low or nonexistent across most of their historical range.

Colorado, for example, has no permanent wolf population, but will occasionally be visited by a traveling wolf, even though the state is generally considered part of the historic range of the gray and has been suggested to be capable of supporting a population of 1000 wolves . Similarly, Utah has a wolf population of zero and already has a codified wolf policy to prevent the establishment of any “viable packs” in the future.

There are powerful lobbyists working to make sure that the management of Gray Wolves is transferred to states with the intention of bringing the wolf populations down to the absolute minimum. Idaho, for example, allowed 418 wolves to be killed in just the last year; only 17 percent were for actual control of wolf attacks on livestock. In total, the 418 wolves killed in Idaho represented almost 40 percent of the total wolf population destroyed in just 12 months. With independent state management like this across the rest of the Rocky Mountain region, it won’t be long until the wolf population reaches minimum levels and requires an intensive and expensive recovery program again.

FYI:

September 7
National Rally to Protect America's Wolves
Washington DC

Thank you for everything you do for animals!

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