Wolf Weekly Wrap Up

The Center for Biological Diversity has gone to court to stop the government's killing machine, Wildlife Services, from shooting, trapping and poisoning Oregon's wolves. We need your help to win.

We've filed suit to halt Wildlife Services' war on wolves in Oregon. This is a huge task and we need your help. Give to our Stop Wildlife Services Fund today, and we'll use your donation to rein in this rogue program.

Wildlife Services operates like a black-ops agency, carrying out a secret war with little accountability. Considering itself exempt from most environmental rules, the program kills as many as 3 million native animals a year -- in addition to wolves, it destroys bears, beavers, otters, foxes, prairie dogs, coyotes, mountain lions, birds and other creatures. Over the past 15 years it has spent a billion dollars to wipe out wildlife.

Help us end this slaughter with your donation to the Stop Wildlife Services Fund.

Those at Wildlife Services are contract killers, always willing to do the dirty work of special interests, especially those in the beef industry and corporate agriculture, destroying wolves and other predators to appease ranchers and big-game hunters. They have no regard for maintaining the integrity of nature and no respect for the decades-old struggle to return wolves to their homes in the once-wild West.

We must end their secret war on wolves and other wildlife. Please give to the Stop Wildlife Services Fund today.


BREAKING: Idaho allocates more money for wolf slaughter - You can’t make something like this up.
"I know it sounds like a lot of money, but you get in a helicopter in the air to hunt these wolves and it’s expensive."
This was the rationale offered by an Idaho state legislator for adding yet another $400,000 to the state’s despicable wolf kill fund.
For the third straight year, Idaho officials are funneling state taxpayers’ money for the sole purpose of killing wolves. Even when effective nonlethal tools are available to prevent conflicts between wolves and livestock, Idaho is still choosing to use their money to aerially gun down wolf families on our national forest lands.
Many of these killings are sanctioned to artificially inflate deer and elk numbers!
Idaho’s wolves have been in mortal danger since Congress stripped them of federal protection in 2011. Since Idaho took over their management, the number of breeding pairs, which are necessary to maintain the population, has plummeted and nearly 2,000 wolves have been killed in that state.
Defenders is the only national organization with staff on the ground in Idaho who not only worked to help restore wolves but who are still actively working at the statehouse and state wildlife commission to defend wolves.

Your urgent support will help us fight to end Idaho’s rogue war on wolves. Please help – before it’s too late.
The numbers are in, and the news is not good: just 97 critically endangered Mexican wolves roamed the wilds of New Mexico and Arizona at the end of 2015, down from last year’s historic high of 109.
I Am Essential
More than ever it’s clear that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must release more wolves into the wild to ensure lobos stay on the path to recovery.

Among our nation’s most endangered animals, the lobo’s downturn is the result of increased mortality, including several poaching incidents, decreased pup survival, and not enough releases of captive bred wolves in 2015. At least 13 lobos were killed last year, and only 55% of pups born in the wild survived to December. The decrease is especially alarming because of the genetic emergency lobos currently face. More wolves in the wild are desperately needed to increase genetic diversity and enhance fitness and survivability across the wild population.

The Service must act now to save this beautiful species by releasing captive bred Mexican wolves into the wild today. New Mexico and Arizona state officials are trying to stop releases, at the urging of anti-carnivore interests who rely on unfounded myths and fears. Join us in telling the Service to focus more on wolves and less on politics.

Washington Wolf Population Grows - Annual population counts released this week show that Washington’s wolf population is growing – great news! We’re thrilled to see this rise in overall population, number of wolf packs and number of wolf breeding pairs is coupled with a decrease in livestock-wolf conflict. This trend is possible thanks in large part to Washington’s efforts to manage wolves proactively, putting in place nonlethal conflict avoidance tools (things like strobe lights, electric fencing, range-riders, etc.) to reduce livestock-wolf conflicts before they occur. Although Washington’s growing wolf population is something to celebrate, it is still concentrated in the eastern portion of the state, remaining absent from the vast, historic habitat that exists for wolves in southern and western Washington. Defenders remains committed to partnering with local communities and landowners to continue the success we’re seeing in Washington by expanding the use of on-the-ground tools and strategies to reduce potential livestock-wolf conflict. This will be critical as the species continues to regain its historic habitat in Washington.