RALEIGH, N.C.
In the 27 years since federal officials reintroduced the red wolf in the wild, a restoration program has mustered about 100 of the carnivores in a handful of North Carolina counties. A decision looms in early 2015 on whether to continue efforts to maintain the only wild population of the species.
How the species’ existence will play out, in the wild or in a cage, has been debated in courtrooms, at high levels of the federal government and in 48,000 public comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The importance of the decision is reflected in the deliberate pace the agency is taking.
Tom MacKenzie, a spokesman for the wildlife service, said that the decision on the program’s fate is expected in the first three months of the year but that he couldn’t be more specific.
“They’re trying to get it done early as possible, but in a deliberative process that allows for everyone’s opinions to be brought in,” he said.
Decision on North Carolina red wolves looms in 2015 | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com.
Comments
Save the wolves
The red wolves, just like anyonther endangered or non endangered animal should be strictly protected by the government equally to the people under the nation. For many years not just these but many animals have been hunted and slaughtered for entering someone’s lands (which originally belonged to these animal who in which were forced out) and eating their cattle, killing someone or just for sport. Humans have always blamed the animals for theses ” wrong doings ” against the human population and always sought for revenge killing any one animal they believed to have done it or numerous amounts just for the satisfaction. These animals are not to blame for surviving through their natural instinct. Yes, it is sad when a person is killed by one of these animal, but the animals should not be held responsible and killed for it. People should realize when going into the woods, the ocean or any piece of land, that it’s not theirs to control and should come to terms with the possibility of dying because of an animal, and the person is to blame for entering its territory, NEVER THE ANIMAL. The red wolf and all other wildlife help keep the balance in nature, and to me they are the better half of the world. By not supporting the red wolfs survival in the wild would lead to its extinction, a beautiful animal gone because people stopped trying and stopped caring. If this happens many more other species could possible follow the extinction eventually we will lose them all.