Wisconsin: Landmark Decision for Wolves
A court in Wisconsin issues a temporary restraining order against the planned wolf hunt. The quota is reduced from 300 to 130 animals.
Decision could spare hundreds of wolves wolves slated for killing.
Court sets kill quota to zero
In what is the best news for wolf protection in the United States in 2021, a court in Wisconsin issued a temporary restraining order on October 22, 2021, compelling the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to set the quota for the upcoming wolf trophy hunt, scheduled to begin on November 6, to zero wolves.
The temporary restraining order was issued at the request of Animal Wellness Action, the Center for a Humane Economy, Project Coyote, Friends of Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife, and Pat Clark of Wisconsin, as part of a lawsuit against the DNR. In an earlier ruling, Dane County Judge Jacob Frost also denied a motion to intervene by an extreme trophy hobby hunter group from Kansas, whose previous lawsuits had set the conditions for the killing of 218 wolves in February 2021.
218 wolves killed in four days
The DNR hastily scheduled a hunting season and set the kill limit at 119 wolves. The hobby hunters quickly exceeded the limit, killing 218 wolves in just four days. According to the DNR's latest estimates, the wolf population in Wisconsin stands at approximately 1,000 animals.
Conservationists condemned the hunting season as a massacre. They urged the DNR board to cancel the fall season in order to protect the remaining population.
Judge Frost's decision to ban hobby hunting was based on his concern that the DNR had violated the Wisconsin Constitution by failing to establish formal rules and follow its own guidelines for wolf hunting.
«The DNR must stop», said Frost in his oral ruling. «You actually have to follow the law.» The judge directed the DNR to set the wolf quota to zero and not to issue any licenses allowing hobby hunters to kill wolves until the DNR has established a formal regulatory framework.
Neither scientifically grounded nor conservation-justified
Opponents of the planned trophy hunt for wolves in November argue that the DNR has acted recklessly with wolves. Part of the state's mismanagement was the setting of a kill quota of 130 wolves for the upcoming hobby hunt, which was neither scientifically grounded nor justified on conservation grounds. During hearings on setting the quota in August, the DNR freely admitted that it had not fully understood the final impacts of the catastrophic trophy hunt of February 2021, when at least 218 wolves were slaughtered in a 60-hour rampage that exceeded the established quota by 83%.
«We are encouraged by this rare instance of reason and democracy in state wolf policy», said Michelle Lute of Project Coyote. «Today's and yesterday's hearings made it clear that the DNR has violated the constitution and that the slaughter of wolves planned for November would cause catastrophic and irreparable harm and must not take place.»
Neither Michigan nor Minnesota have chosen to permit the trophy hunting and trapping of wolves in 2021, leaving Wisconsin alone among the Great Lakes region states with its wolf policy . Granting the injunction gives wolves in Wisconsin a reprieve until federal protections can be restored in a separate proceeding before a federal court.
