The Fight to Help Protect Idaho and Montana Wolf Hunts

SCI and the NRA are continuing their aggressive fight to protect the scientifically sound wolf hunts already underway in Montana and Idaho and to keep wolf management in the hands of the states. On November 8, 2011, SCI and NRA go back to court to battle anti-hunting organizations who ignore science for the purposes of their own fundraising and who continue to challenge the federal law that delisted the wolves of the Northern Rocky Mountains.

This week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear an appeal filed by two sets of animal rights groups, led by Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Center for Biological Diversity. The hearing will take place in Pasadena, California.

The appeal challenges the constitutionality of federal legislation that directed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist the wolves of Montana, Idaho, and portions of Utah, Oregon and Washington State. Montana federal District Court Judge Donald Malloy grudgingly upheld the constitutionality of the law. The animal rights groups appealed that decision and are attempting to persuade the Ninth Circuit that this law violates the Constitution.

SCI and the NRA intervened in the appeal and persuaded the Ninth Circuit to allow hunters a voice in the controversy. Two other groups, led by Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Montana Farm Bureau Federation, were also granted intervention. SCI, the NRA and the other two intervening groups are coordinating their efforts to make the most effective use of the time that the court has given them to participate in the oral argument.

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies also filed a motion for emergency relief in an attempt to stop the wolf hunt currently underway in Montana and Idaho. The Ninth Circuit refused to take action prior to the hearing and will be considering the motion at the Nov. 8th hearing. SCI and NRA submitted a detailed brief, enhanced with statements from two wolf experts, that supports the hunts as sustainable wildlife management strategies.

The Ninth Circuit will likely take the Constitutional challenge and the emergency motion under advisement, and issue their rulings in the weeks after the hearing. SCI will continue to advocate the delisting of recovered wolves throughout the west and will stand up to protect hunters against litigious anti-hunting radicals.

Please consider supporting SCI’s efforts to protect wolf hunting at http://www.hunterdefensefund.org/.