February 4, 2005

This week, a court case has decided to maintain the grey wolf's endangered species protection status.
Defenders of Wildlife filed a suit after March 18, 2003, when the Fish and Wildlife Service decided to  downlist the wolf from "endangered" status to "threatened" status. Such a move would have dramatically weakened the legal protection of the animal, and jeopardised it's recovery, according to wildlife campaigners.
Rodger Schlickeisen, Defenders of Wildlife's President, commented:
The Government's plans to reclassify the grey wolf were criticized as 'not based on science or the law' by the US District Court ruling. The Court ruled today that it was unlawful for the Administration to weaken legal protections for the grey wolf in large areas of its historic range based on recovery success in a just a few core areas like the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes. This ruling calls into question other Bush Administration wolf proposals, one of which is their attempt to remove protections entirely for the wolves in the Northeastern United States.
Schlickeisen also stated:


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Grey Wolves are Still Protected by the Endangered Species Act