A little over a year ago, in January of 2021, America’s iconic gray wolves were officially stripped of federal Endangered Species Act protections by the USFWS under the direction of the Trump administration. This short-sighted rule once again condemned our nation’s wolves to violent, unnecessary deaths at the hands of hunters. Due to the success of a lawsuit, there has been a reversal of that ruling—but there’s still a massive remaining problem left over from a bill passed during the Obama administration that removed protections for a significant portion of gray wolves in the U.S. 

It was on Feb 10 of this year that the U.S. district court issued a ruling to return wolves in the lower 48 states, but unfortunately not Alaska, to the federal Endangered Species Act excluding those wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains region, who are still affected by the terrible bill passed during the Obama administration. Tragically, this means that the wolves in some of the areas with the largest wolf populations will not be protected under federal law.

This is disappointing news, however, there is great news related to the court victory. Gray wolves in Wisconsin are safe (for now). In light of the new rule that was made based on the court ruling, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) determined that the state is not authorized to implement a wolf “harvest season” this year. The DNR has committed to monitoring wolf populations in the state and will work toward completing a new wolf management plan for the future. Last year, the state’s wolf hunting season ended in less than 72 hours after hunters killed 216 wolves, which exceeded the allowed kill quota by over 80%. We are relieved to learn that the few remaining wolves will not face the same terrifying and violent fate this year. We’re grateful a California judge was able to do what the state of Wisconsin was unwilling to do, despite the voices of over 13,500 of our supporters.

We applaud Wisconsin’s decision to eliminate this year’s wolf hunt and look forward to hearing that other states will be following suit. 

Luckily, the federal rule to relist gray wolves outside of the Northern Rocky Mountains region also invalidates permits that allow landowners who experience conflicts with wolves to use lethal removal methods. Non-lethal tools remain available. Dogs may no longer be trained to track and trail wolves.

While the United States government has been forced to take a small step to save some of America’s wolves, it is not enough. Wolves in northeastern Washington, northern Idaho, western Montana, and northwestern Wyoming, officially referred to as gray wolves of the Western Distinct Population Segment, still need protection.

We’ve also mentioned it before but would like to remind you of the happy news that it was wolf defenders who vote, including In Defense of Animals supporters, who secured a victory for Colorado’s wolves through a ballot initiative to restore Colorado’s wolf population.

We would like to thank you and all of our supporters for signing our initial alert to relist gray wolves throughout the United States that we published before the court ruling. Your voices contributed to an overwhelming chorus in support of wolves nationwide, but our work for wolves is not over.  Please take action today if you have not already done so to urge the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Secretary Deb Haaland, and President Biden to act now to relist all of America’s wolves. 

Thank you for caring!