Alaska's lethal wolf control program facing new challenge

[Eugene]

Alaska's lethal wolf control program facing new challenge
By MARY PEMBERTON
Associated Press Writer

August 30, 2006, 4:54 AM EDT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Alaska's wolf-killing program to boost moose and caribou numbers
is facing a new legal challenge.

Two conservation groups filed a lawsuit in Superior Court alleging that the program,
in which more than 550 wolves have been killed, is based on faulty science and violates
state law.

Defenders of Wildlife and the Alaska Wildlife Alliance asked the court last week to halt
the program authorized in 2003 by the state Board of Game. A similar court challenge
launched by the Connecticut-based group Friends of Animals was not successful in putting
an end to the program.

But in that case, Superior Court Judge Sharon Gleason had ruled that the Game Board had
not followed its own rules in approving the programs and had not considered all alternatives
besides aerial killing. The Game Board responded with new regulations that satisfied the
legal shortcomings and resurrected aerial wolf control in all five areas.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct--wolfcontrol0830aug30,0,3043589.story

[YankeyMCC]

1. Other areas are or are considering introducing wolves

to repopulate them. What about shipping the wolves if there's a real need to dramatically reduce numbers (I haven't followed the story of the wolves in Alaska)? Or are they not fitted for survival in say Idaho or the White Mountains in New England?

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I 'adopted' an Alaskan wolf through Defenders of Wildlife. Question to

those who hunt: do you consider it 'sport' to shoot something from a low-flying plane or copter?