Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate

Santa Fe, NM – After receiving word of Catron County’s intent to remove the Durango Pack’s pregnant alpha female from the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area, a coalition of conservation groups have called on the criminal enforcement arm of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to stop this illegal killing in its tracks. WildEarth Guardians, the Center for Biological Diversity, Sinapu, and the Rewilding Institute have sent the agency an official request for federal intervention in the promised county removal of Mexican wolf F924.

The county’s demand for wolf removal is its first application of ordinance 001-2007, which authorizes the Catron County Commission to have wolves killed in their own recovery zone. Once the county has voted to remove a wolf as it did last week, the ordinance requires that a county official kill the wolf if the Fish & Wildlife Service won’t remove the animal immediately.

The conservation coalition claims that the ordinance is unlawful, and plans to sue to have it invalidated. Under the Endangered Species Act, the groups cannot file their civil claims until at least 60 days after serving the county with their notice of intent. Federal prosecutors, however, can bring criminal charges against Catron County for attempting to commit a violation of the Act at any time, and can seek penalties of up to $50,000 and one year imprisonment.

Although the Service has not been particularly vocal about Catron County’s ordinance, the agency has agreed with the conservation groups that federal law trumps any conflicting county ordinance, and has denied that there is any justifiable reason for removing F924. Now that Catron County has cast its first vote for wolf removal, the conservation coalition expects the Fish & Wildlife Service to respond to the county’s demand letter with criminal charges.

The window of time in which the agency has to act is quickly closing. As reports of two dead cattle circulate today, pressure to kill a wolf in Catron County is mounting. Although there are potentially three wolf packs in the area of the livestock deaths, the county is publicly concluding that F924 is to blame. The location of the Durango pack has even been posted on an anti-wolf website, making the alpha female’s assassination a very real possibility.

“Today, we are scared for the Durango pack and their unborn pups,” says Melissa Hailey, staff attorney for WildEarth Guardians. “It is the Fish & Wildlife Service’s job to protect all endangered species, including the Mexican gray wolf. We implore the agency to carry out its conservation mandate and save these animals from certain death.”