EDITOR: Congress should not be overriding the federal courts and cherry-picking which place to add or remove from the federal list of endangered species, and that’s exactly what Sen. Ron Johnson and Rep. Reid Ribble are urging with their efforts to remove federal protections for wolves (“Gray wolf is not endangered in Wisconsin,” Feb. 2).
Last year, when Johnson attempted delisting more than 70 wildlife, scientists and professionals wrote to Congress to advocate against the move. Congress wisely chose to listen to them, as well as to the federal courts, which in two separate rulings criticized state wildlife agencies for conducting overreaching trophy hunting and trapping programs in Wyoming and the Great Lakes states after wolves were temporarily delisted there.
Indeed, after that 2012 decision, trophy hunters and trappers killed 20 percent of the Wisconsin wolf population, including 17 entire family units. In a three-year period, more than 1,500 wolves were killed in the Great Lakes states alone. This sad history proves why federal oversight is needed. These protections are critical for wolves and consistent with safety goals. There is no record of healthy wild wolves attacking humans. As for livestock, Section 4(d) allows agencies to use lethal removal to resolve conflicts.
Nobody eats wolves; that would be like eating a dog. And with federal law allowing selective control of problem wolves, this is a contrived controversy. Lawmakers should show more restraint and allow proper judicial review of administrative actions.
Melissa Tedrowe,
Wauwatosa
The author is the Wisconsin state director of The Humane Society of the United States.