The Mexican gray wolf is a subspecies of the gray wolf. Commonly referred to as "El lobo," this wolf is gray with light brown fur on its back. Its long legs and sleek body enable it to run fast. Though they once numbered in the thousands, these wolves were wiped out in the U.S. by the mid-1970s, with just a handful existing in zoos. In 1998, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, led by Jamie Rappaport Clark (now president of Defenders of Wildlife), released 11 Mexican gray wolves back into the wild in Arizona. Although their numbers have grown slowly, and they remain the most endangered subspecies of wolf in the world.
Yet, on a 16-12 vote the Arizona Senate approved legislation that allows a livestock operator or agent to kill a wolf on public lands if it is in self-defense or the defense of others. The only requirement under HB 2699 is that the act must be reported to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In separate action the House gave final approval to SB 1211. Its permission to kill wolves on public lands is broader, extending that to any wolf engaged in killing, wounding or biting livestock. And it also allows dogs which guard livestock to kill wolves.
The 37-22 vote came over the objections of Rep. Victoria Steele, D-Tucson. "We nearly destroyed the buffalo years ago," she told colleagues, evoking the image of herds of animals shot and left to rot on the Great Plains. "We're about to do this to the Mexican wolves. We don't have to keep repeated the tragic mistakes of history."
And Rep. Jonathan Larkin, D-Phoenix, said there are "more humane" alternatives to having ranchers kill the wolves. He said that New Mexico, for example, has set up a fund to reimburse ranchers for lost livestock.
Much of the debate concerns whether wolves, which here until at least 1930, should be reintroduced to Arizona. I'm in agreeance with the thought that there are better alternatives than to allow the killing of these wolves, such as a fund to reimburse those affected by livestock mortalities, etc. Wolves can be vital ecosystem engineers. The lobo was once “top dog” in the borderlands, and when the wolf population returns to healthy numbers, biologists believe that lobos will restore balance to the Southwest’s ecosystems by keeping deer, elk and javelina -a type of peccary - populations healthy and in check. Wolves strengthen these animals by preying on the old, sick and young, and prevent their populations from growing so numerous that they overgraze and destroy habitat that countless other species depend on.
Story via the Arizona Daily Star
Photo Credit: USFWS