Honestly, we do not believe this is justice! Probation and a 2,300 fine for trapping and killing a critically endangered Mexican Gray Wolf?
Between 1998 and 2015, there were 155 deaths and disappearances in New Mexico and Arizona of radio-collared Mexican wolves. Of these wolves, 53 had “unknown fates.”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials who manage the Mexican wolf recovery program in New Mexico are underestimating the rate of poaching by up to 21 percent.
At least three critically endangered Mexican wolves were caught in traps this winter. At last official count, just 114 Mexican wolves roam the wilds of the southwestern United States.
The lobo is the most genetically distinct and one of the rarest subspecies of gray wolf. It is an endangered species whose survival and recovery is threatened by a genetic crisis, habitat restrictions, mismanagement, and trapping. One of the three wolves trapped during the 2017-2018 season (female pup 1664) eventually lost a leg due to her incident. A second trapped wolf (m1569) was released onsite by the trapper and found dead in March 2018.
At last official count, just 114 Mexican wolves roam the wilds of the southwestern United States.
OUR WOLVES DESERVE JUSTICE AND THE CREATOR IS WATCHING THE PEOPLE THAT KILL AND HARM THE FOUR LEGGED HE CREATED.
SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN
May 25th, 2018
A man who admitted he intentionally trapped and killed an endangered Mexican gray wolf with a shovel in Catron County has been sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to pay restitution to the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program.
Craig Thiessen pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Albuquerque to a criminal misdemeanor charge of the taking of threatened wildlife, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Thiessen, from Datil, admitted that in 2015 he captured a gray wolf in a trap on his grazing allotment in the Gila National Forest and hit the wolf with a shovel. He admitted knowing the animal was a gray wolf “because it bore a tracking collar, which is affixed to all Mexican gray wolves in the area,” the release states. In addition to probation, Thiessen was ordered to pay $2,300 to the recovery program.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the wolves as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1976, prompting the recovery efforts. The agency reported in February that there were 114 wild wolves in the New Mexico and Arizona population, just one more than in 2016.
FILE – In this undated file photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a Mexican gray wolf leaves cover at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro County, N.M. Suspicion over federal plans to restore Mexican gray wolves has spread to Colorado and Utah, where ranchers and elected officials are fiercely resisting any attempt to import the predators. (Jim Clark/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP, File)
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