Court bars killing of predatory wolves in Wisconsin

A judges decision will keep Wisconsin from killing wolves that attack livestock

by Tom Meersman, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune

A recent federal court decision requires Wisconsin officials to use only nonlethal methods, such as shock collars, noise and flashing lights, to deal with wolves that kill livestock. State and federal wildlife officials have called the ruling disappointing and said it may provoke farmers to kill wolves illegally.

Livestock predation in northern Wisconsin is a growing problem as the wolf population has increased to more than 500 animals, according to Adrian Wydeven, wolf specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

“We’re starting to see that wolves in northwestern Wisconsin have saturated the public forest land and are now moving into farm areas,” he said. Last year 25 farms reported incidents involving wolves and livestock, Wydeven said, three times more than during the late 1990s.

The court decision in Washington, D.C., came after the Humane Society of the United States and other animal-welfare groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for giving Wisconsin a special permit to kill as many as 43 wolves in 2006 if there was evidence that they had preyed on livestock. The Wildlife Service enforces the Endangered Species Act, which has protected gray wolves since 1978.

The groups argued that because the wolf is classified as endangered in Wisconsin, it may not be killed except for scientific research or extraordinary circumstances, and not to control livestock predation.

The ruling does not apply to Minnesota, where wolves are classified as threatened rather than endangered. Government trappers caught and killed 134 wolves in Minnesota last year in response to 83 verified complaints of livestock predation, according to federal officials.

Eric Koens, a Bruce, Wis., farmer and a director of the Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association, said the decision is frustrating for livestock owners. “If there’s no method of controlling this, people are going to use whatever means are necessary to remove these predators,” he said.

However, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected government arguments that public support for wolf recovery would erode and illegal killings would rise if depredating wolves could not be killed.

Animal-rights organizations called the court ruling a victory. Using the special permit in Wisconsin was a “shortcut to kill wolves,” said Patricia Lake, a Humane Society attorney, and made it too easy for farmers to complain of wolf predation and for government trappers to remove the animals.

No decision has been made whether to appeal the ruling.

Authorized trappers will continue to track wolves that prey on livestock in northern Wisconsin, Wydeven said, but will now fit many of them with $300 shock collars before they are released. The collar, also used to train dogs, would shock the wolf if it came within the radius of a triggering device in a pasture or field.

Wisconsin’s DNR will assist farmers who want to install noisemakers, flashing lights and flags on fences to deter wolves, he said.