Sen. Franken Seeks Funding for Wolf-Livestock Programs

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 12, 2015

CONTACT:
Dr. Maureen Hackett, Howling For Wolves, 612.250.5915 or Leslie Rosedahl, LWRosedahl@locklaw.com, 651.353.1818

Howling For Wolves supports Sen. Franken’s efforts seeking funding for programs to prevent wolf-livestock issues

(St. Paul, Minn) – Howling For Wolves, a Minnesota-based wolf advocacy organization, supports Sen. Al Franken’s (D-Minn.) effort seeking additional federal funding for programs that prevent wolf-livestock conflicts.  Sen. Franken’s letter was sent on March 11, 2015 to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Sen. Franken’s letter is cosigned by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.). 

Howling For Wolves supports state and federal funding for programs to address wolf-livestock conflicts, such as the federal “Wolf-Livestock Project Grant Program” which helps farmers and ranchers deploy proactive non-lethal methods to prevent wolf-livestock conflicts. Due to the recent federal court ruling, there is urgency and interest in non-lethal methods to prevent wolf-livestock conflicts. Reducing predation on livestock and supporting farmers and ranchers is a shared goal of Howling For Wolves and the agriculture community.

“Howling For Wolves supports effective, science-based, and non-lethal wolf plans to support the gray wolf population into the future so communities and wolves can coexist,” said Dr. Maureen Hackett, Founder and President of Howling For Wolves.

Wolf livestock conflicts were low in Minnesota prior to the 2012 delisting and subsequent hunting seasons. From 2006 through 2011, the number of affected farms ranged from 63 to 93, and the number of cows and calves killed ranged from 52 to 91, with an annual reimbursement to farmers for depredation of $109,000 in 2009.

Today, Minnesota wolves have federal protection and may not be hunted. They are listed as a “threatened” species, and may be killed in the defense of human life and by government agents for livestock predation. This new status happened December 19, 2014 in a federal court decision overturning a 2011 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to delist Great Lakes wolves. Minnesota’s has had three consecutive wolf hunting and trapping seasons.

Howling For Wolves signed and supports the petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services encouraging them to list all gray wolves as “threatened.”  “We hope our state and federal leaders abide by the Endangered Species Act and stop playing politics with wolf management,” said Hackett.