[MCN] BREAKING: Wildlife advocates ask court to immediately halt Montana’s wolf hunting and trapping season

[Matthew Koehler]

For Release: Thursday, November 10, 2022

*Wildlife advocates ask court to immediately halt Montana’s wolf hunting
and trapping season*

*Motion seeks to prevent “irreparable” wolf killing pending ruling on
legality of State’s wolf-hunting policies*

*CONTACTS:*
Lizzy Pennock, WildEarth Guardians, (406) 830-8924,
lpennock at wildearthguardians.org
Michelle Lute, Project Coyote, (406) 848-4910, mlute at projectcoyote.org

*HELENA, MONTANA—*A motion was filed today
<https://pdf.wildearthguardians.org/support_docs/2022-11-10-Petitioners'-Brief-in-Support-of-Preliminary-Injunction.pdf>
asking
a Montana state court to prohibit the start of the state’s wolf-trapping
season as well as to immediately halt the on-going wolf-hunting season
while the merits of a pending lawsuit are being considered. Conservation
groups WildEarth Guardians and Project Coyote, a project of Earth Island
Institute, filed the time-sensitive motion with the wolf trapping and
snaring season set to begin on November 28, 2022. The hunting season began
in September.

Today’s motion
<https://pdf.wildearthguardians.org/support_docs/2022-11-10-Petitioners'-Brief-in-Support-of-Preliminary-Injunction.pdf>
comes
two weeks after the conservation groups filed the initial lawsuit
<https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/wildlife-advocates-sue-to-stop-unscientific-senseless-wolf-slaughter-in-montana/>
against
the State of Montana, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP)
and the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission (the “Commission”) alleging
that the state’s current wolf hunting and trapping regulations violate
numerous laws and the Montana constitution.

The motion asks the court to issue a temporary restraining order, followed
by a preliminary injunction, to stop all recreational killing of wolves in
the state pending resolution of the lawsuit. In the 2021-2022 season, 273
wolves were killed by hunters and trappers—including 19 Yellowstone
wolves—with nearly 70 percent of the wolves killed after the trapping
season began on November 29, 2021. So far, hunters have killed 55 wolves
this season, while regulations permit hunters and trappers to kill an
additional 395 wolves before the season ends in March 2023. The motion
alleges that the conservation groups’ interests will be harmed beyond
repair if the court allows the hunting and trapping season to proceed while
they fully litigate their case.

Notably, the motion—and the underlying lawsuit—claim that there are
significant flaws in the population model used to estimate the total number
of wolves in the state. Since the 456 quota for the 2022-2023 season relies
upon a flawed population model, reaching the quota could have devastating
consequences on the state’s wolf population. Per allegations in the motion,
“Montana does not have an accurate picture of how many wolves are living in
Montana and cannot sustainably and legally manage the species through
another wolf hunt this winter.”

“Montana’s wolf hunting and trapping season must be stopped before our
state’s wolf population faces potential decimation and the point of no
return,” said Lizzy Pennock, Montana-based carnivore coexistence advocate
at WildEarth Guardians. “As long as the wolf killing season continues, each
wolf that suffers and dies under the alleged unconstitutional and illegal
policies is a wolf that should never have been killed in the first place.”

This motion is part of the groups’ lawsuit filed on October 27
<https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/wildlife-advocates-sue-to-stop-unscientific-senseless-wolf-slaughter-in-montana/>,
which claims that the State of  Montana, MFWP, and the Commission are
violating the law by relying on stale and insufficient scientific data in
order to authorize the killing of roughly 40 percent of the state’s wolf
population this coming winter. The suit also alleges that the state is
flouting its responsibility to manage wildlife for the benefit of the
entire public and is overstepping its management authority by allowing wolf
slaughter on the boundaries of federal lands, namely Yellowstone and
Glacier National Parks. For more information about the specific claims in
the complaint and the legal background that led to this lawsuit, click here
<https://pdf.wildearthguardians.org/support_docs/Montana-Lewis-and-Clark-First-Judicial-Wolf-Lawsuit-10-27-2022.pdf>
.

“At the time of this writing, the lives of 55 wolves have already been
claimed in Montana since the September start of the hunting season,” said
Michelle Lute, PhD in wolf conservation and carnivore conservation director
for Project Coyote, an organization that works to protect native
carnivores. “Multiple studies document that illegal poaching increases
during legal recreation hunts so we know that untold numbers of additional
wolves, as well as non-target animals, have been indiscriminately killed
and are not reflected in the official death toll. We need to put a halt to
this season's wolf hunting and trapping seasons at least until the court
can determine whether the state of Montana is in violation of its policies.”

During the approval process for the challenged hunting and trapping
regulations, first adopted in 2021, MFWP noted that the new killing method
most anticipated to increase the number of dead wolves is snares, because
snares are cheap, easy to place in abundance, and easy to maintain in bad
weather. Additionally, trapping and snaring are inherently non-selective
for the target species. Research shows that neck snares are anywhere from
21-50 percent selective, and foot snares are approximately 32-45 percent
effective at capturing the intended animal. Non-target animals that die in
traps and snares set for wolves include, among others, companion animals,
deer, bighorn sheep, and imperiled species such as grizzly bears and Canada
lynx.

Plaintiffs are represented by Morrison Sherwood Wilson Deola, PLLP of
Helena, Montana and Greenfire Law, PC of Berkeley, California.
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