Animal advocates are suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to allow the Mexican gray wolf to run free and not be restricted to its current designated habitat.
“We’re as sick as anybody of having to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service over this rule,” Greta Anderson, Deputy Director of the Western Watersheds Project told KRQE. “We would like them to just do the right thing. And so, you know, we believe that there’s some real legal vulnerabilities. There’s some real problems with what they’ve done here.”
The lawsuit is intended to force the government to expand the wolf’s habitat north of I-40. Currently, they’re only in the far southwest corner of the state. The federal government has said the rule creates a balance between wolf preservation and protecting livestock. Animal advocates say that area is too small, and a larger habitat area will promote genetic diversity among the pack.
“As soon as they cross I-40, because of the management role, a lot of times, the US Fish and Wildlife Service is pressured to go and get them and bring them back,” Anderson said. “I don’t think we have to do anything. I think we just have to let them run.”