Ruling Halts Wisconsin Bid to Kill Gray Wolves

A federal court has issued a preliminary injunction barring Wisconsin from killing gray wolves, siding with animal welfare and environmental groups that argue the killing violates the Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had issued a permit to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for the killing of up to 43 gray wolves. The state argued that the permit was necessary to maintain social tolerance for the wolves, which are listed as endangered.

U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly mocked that rationale. “Simply put,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her decision, “the recovery of the gray wolf is not supported by killing 43 gray wolves.”