Wolves vs. Humans - Round 2

[Pooky 3,783]

BILLINGS, Mont. - A federal judge has restored endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, derailing plans by three states to hold public wolf hunts this fall.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy granted a preliminary injunction late Friday restoring the protections for the wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Molloy will eventually decide whether the injunction should be permanent.

The region has an estimated 2,000 gray wolves. They were removed from the endangered species list in March, following a decade-long restoration effort.

Environmentalists sued to overturn the decision, arguing wolf numbers would plummet if hunting were allowed. They sought the injunction in the hopes of stopping the hunts and allowing the wolf population to continue expanding.

"There were fall hunts scheduled that would call for perhaps as many as 500 wolves to be killed. We're delighted those wolves will be saved," said attorney Doug Honnold with Earthjustice, who had argued the case before Molloy on behalf of 12 environmental groups.

In his ruling, Molloy said the federal government had not met its standard for wolf recovery, including interbreeding of wolves between the three states to ensure healthy genetics.

"Genetic exchange has not taken place," Molloy wrote in the 40-page decision.

Molloy said hunting and state laws allowing the killing of wolves for livestock attacks would likely "eliminate any chance for genetic exchange to occur."

The federal biologist who led the wolf restoration program, Ed Bangs, defended the decision to delist wolves as "a very biologically sound package."

"The hunting of wolves clearly wouldn't endanger threatened wolf populations," Bangs said Friday. "We felt the science was rock solid and that the delisting was warranted."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25741975/

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

:dance: :dance:

[Nagishkaw 510]

:dance: :dance: :dance: :dance:

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Yay! Good for him!!!!

[mendeleev 68]

This ruling fits right in with the dominant trend of the courts finding that almost all of Pres. Bush II environmental rulings did not follow the law and therefore must be overturned.

[Ggreen 12]

[Sassy1natl 0]

This ruling fits right in with the dominant trend of the courts finding that almost all of Pres. Bush II environmental rulings did not follow the law and therefore must be overturned.

Hmm...go figure.

[Pooky 3,783]

This ruling fits right in with the dominant trend of the courts finding that almost all of Pres. Bush II environmental rulings did not follow the law and therefore must be overturned.

President Bush has ####### all to do with this. The program director was all for delisting the wolves. He's the nob in question here. I doubt the President even knows of the program, let alone what the program director was on the point of allowing happen.

Regardless, the Judge did the right thing. Let's hope he makes his ruling permanent.

P

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

So can I or can't I eat the gray wolf meat already in my freezer?

[Sassy1natl 0]

Stir fry... they will never know

[Aubrey 10]

So glad to hear this... I wanted to vomit when I heard they were being partially delisted. Especially when I heard jack@$$ comments from people like Idaho's governor: "I'm prepared to bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself."

Thank you Judge Molloy!

[almaty 19]

alaright..way to go judge..gray wolves are cool..have a hawk hunt instead...