It seems the battle lines are being drawn deeper into the sand these days what with the announcement of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s wishes to delist the gray wolf around the Idaho, Wyoming and Montana areas. Wyoming is still tied up in court with the USFWS over a wolf management plan. Negotiations have pretty much failed and it appears at some point in time this will also be left up to the courts.
With the announcement came public hearings to give citizens a chance to voice their opinions about the proposal. Being most vocal against the delisting are your perennial animal rights activists who will more than likely wait until the USFWS makes a formal announcement to delist before they begin filing lawsuits that will bog down in the legal system for years, perhaps decades. In the meantime, what is going to happen to the rest of the balance of the ecosystem in these areas? We at least have to ask.
Now it appears that both extremes of the wolf – anti-wolf debate are squaring off. We know the wolf advocates will spend whatever money and time is necessary to stop the delisting regardless of the consequences to man. On the other end, we now have the wolf haters of the Anti Wolf Coalition whose bent is to once again eradicate the animal.
Ron Gillet, leader of the AWC, is seeking signatures for a citizens initiative that if passed would force the state of Idaho to declare the wolf a predator, not be protected, no longer part of a rehabilitation program and to be removed from the state by any means available.
Sound extreme? Perhaps not as extreme as if the pro wolf groups decided to sign that petition and work toward approval of the measure. That’s right! Wolf advocates promoting a citizen’s initiative to eradicate the wolf.
The illogical logic behind this ploy, which proves to make a mockery out of our legal system, is that if the state passed such a law, the USFWS would be forced to stop its process of delisting the wolf. That’s according to some in the animal rights groups. As I said, wolf lovers will go to any extremes to get their way.
According to Gillet, he says a move like this might be what it would take to force a court action once and for all to rule as whether the Endangered Species Act, a federal law, is the supreme law and supersedes all state and federal constitutions.
The Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd, Inc., is in a legal position to challenge the federal government and force them to delist the wolf. Friends have offered to team up with the state of Montana in a lawsuit that would require the feds to finally take action. Their frustration, along with countless others, comes because the USFWS has been promising for years to do something and still nothing has been done. In the meantime there are areas like the northern Yellowstone elk herd that are suffering from wolf predation.
The tension is mounting and with the recent conclusion of six state public hearings put on by the USFWS about the delisting process, it is bringing to the forefront the always heated and passionate debate over the wolf. If the wolf advocate groups opt to sue to stop the delisting, combined with the disagreements between Wyoming and the feds, hunting groups and the feds and just about everybody else and the feds, the final chapter may just be the United States Supreme Court.
Tom Remington
