JEFF BARNARD, AP Environmental Writer
Updated 08:10 p.m., Wednesday, October 5, 2011
The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday granted a request by conservation groups to temporarily halt Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to shoot two of the state's 14 wolves for killing livestock.
The immediate stay was issued late in the day, hours after the conservation groups filed for the court order, Oregon Wild conservation director Steve Pedery said.
The groups sought to prevent the department from killing the wolves while the appeals court reviews whether the state's wolf management plan complies with the Endangered Species Act.
The department issued the kill order two weeks ago after satellite tracking information confirmed that the leader of the Imnaha wolf pack had been present when wolves killed a calf in northeastern Oregon. The order targets that wolf and another that does not have a tracking device.
Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy did not immediately return a phone call for comment late Wednesday. Earlier, she said the department had received the lawsuit and agency lawyers were reviewing it.
The groups are also asking Gov. John Kitzhaber to halt the hunt, which would bring the number of wolves in Oregon down to 12 from a high of 21.
"ODFW until now has been only responding to pressure from the livestock industry and state legislators representing the livestock industry," Pedery said. "They are not interested in what the public thinks. This really leaves us no option but to take them to court."
The kill order would leave two wolves in the first pack to establish in Oregon since wolves were reintroduced in the Northern Rockies in the 1990s. The department has said the loss of the alpha male and leaving just two survivors of the pack could mean its demise, but that prospect had nothing to do with the decision for the kill order.
The department had said a hunter would look first for a member of the pack not collared with a radio transmitter, then go after the alpha male. That wolf goes by the number OR4 and sired the first pups in Oregon since wolves began moving back into the state from Idaho.
Read more:
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Ore-appeals-court-issues-stay-in-wolf-kill-plans-2204159.php#ixzz1a0khQNc5
