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Emergency Petition Filed to Save Plummeting Red Wolf Population

Date
May 24, 2016
Contact
Bethany Cotton (503) 327-4923 bcotton@wildearthguardians.org
In This Release
Wildlife  
#DefendCarnivores, #EndTheWarOnWildlife

Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Emergency Petition Filed to Save Plummeting Red Wolf Population

Stronger Regulations Needed to Stem Illegal Shootings, Expand Where Wild Wolves Can Roam
Contact: Bethany Cotton (503) 327-4923 bcotton@wildearthguardians.org

Additional Contacts:

BrettHartl, Center for Biological Diversity (202) 817-8121, bhartl@biologicaldiversity.org

AmeyOwen, Animal Welfare Institute, (202) 446-2128, amey@awionline.org


WASHINGTON— Conservation groups submitted anemergency petition today calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take immediatesteps to bolster flagging protections for the world’s only wild population of redwolves, which has declined by more than 50 percent in just two years, to as fewas 45 wolves. The decline occurred after the Service—responding to pressurefrom those opposed to wolf recovery—deliberatelyabandoned wolf-recovery efforts and dramatically curtailed investigations ofillegal wolf-shootings.

“Red wolves face the very realpossibility of vanishing from the wild if they don’t get the help they need,” saidBrett Hartl, endangered species policy director at the Center for BiologicalDiversity. “Sadly the Fish and Wildlife Service seems more concerned aboutappeasing a small minority of anti-wildlife extremists in North Carolina thanpreventing the extinction of these wolves.”

Recently obtained records via the Freedom of Information Act demonstratethat the Service’s red wolf biologists recommended strengthening protections byeliminating loopholes in regulations that have facilitated excessive illegalshootings of red wolves. As recently as 2013, the Service had consideredfollowing these recommendations and had even drafted new regulations. But thebiologists’ recommendations were ignored, the regulations were never finalized,and the red wolf continues to suffer unsustainable levels of mortality.

Today’s emergency petition requests that the Service revise the currentred wolf regulations in order to reduce red wolf shooting deaths, establishadditional wild populations of red wolves, and reclassify all reintroducedpopulations of red wolves as “essential” experimental populations. Currently,wild red wolves are classified as “non-essential,” which severely limits theprotections they receive under the Endangered Species Act.

“It is completely arbitrary that thislone wild population of red wolves, which was reintroduced almost 30 years ago,is still classified by the Service as a ‘non-essential’ species,” said TaraZuardo, wildlife attorney with the Animal Welfare Institute. “The Service hasturned its back on this species, and is undermining rather than bolstering redwolf recovery.”

The organizations that filed today’spetition include the Animal Welfare Institute, the Center for BiologicalDiversity, the Endangered Species Coalition, the South Florida WildlandsAssociation, WildEarth Guardians, Wildlands Network, and the Wolf ConservationCenter.

The Animal Welfare Institute (awionline.org)is a nonprofit charitable organization founded in 1951 and dedicated toreducing animal suffering caused by people. AWI engages policymakers, scientists, industry, and the public toachieve better treatment of animals everywhere—in the laboratory, on the farm,in commerce, at home, and in the wild.

TheCenter for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservationorganization with more than 1 million members and online activists dedicated tothe protection of endangered species and wild places.

WildEarth Guardians works to protect and restore the wildlife, wildplaces, wild rivers, and health of the American West.

Other Contact
Brett Hartl, Center for Biological Diversity (202) 817-8121, bhartl@biologicaldiversity.org