Judge OKs lethal wolf control
ANCHORAGE - An Alaska judge on Friday rejected an attempt by an animal-rights group to stop a state-sponsored program allowing hunters to shoot wolves from airplanes in Alaska.
That opens the door to a threatened nationwide tourism boycott targeting Alaska's $2 billion tourism business, the same tactic that halted a similar wolf eradication effort a decade ago.
The Darien, Conn.-based Friends of Animals, and seven Alaska plaintiffs, asked Superior Court Judge Sharon L. Gleason to grant a preliminary injunction to stop the lethal wolf-control program intended to boost the moose population in McGrath, a village of 470 people in the Interior.
Gleason refused to grant the injunction and lifted a temporary restraining order that had kept three pilot-and-hunter teams grounded since Nov. 26.
Friends of Animals President Priscilla Feral said she would spend the weekend considering the possibility of further legal action.
"We're hoping what the state won't do is rush out and annihilate the wolves," she said.
In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week, Feral pledged to organize a tourism boycott if the state insists on killing wolves.
Friends of Animals, which touts 200,000 members, was behind a successful tourism boycott about a decade ago that resulted in then-Gov. Walter J. Hickel imposing a moratorium on wolf control in 1992. During that boycott, Friends of Animals launched 53 demonstrations called "howl-ins" in 51 cities around the country.
McGrath is off the road system and about 300 air miles from large grocery and department stores in Anchorage and Fairbanks. Residents have complained for a decade that there are too few moose for food because they are being eaten by wolves and bears.
The state wants to kill the wolves in approximately a 1,700-square-mile area near McGrath to establish a moose nursery of sorts. The program began this spring by moving out 75 black bears and eight grizzlies. State wildlife biologist say moving the bears increased the summer survival rate of moose calves by about 20 percent.
The state spent about $100,000 on the bear-relocation effort.
Now, the state wants to remove between 35 and 45 wolves to save about 25 moose calves that otherwise likely would be eaten by wolves this winter. The state has about $1,300 invested so far in each moose calf that would be saved under the program, said state lawyer Kevin Saxby.
Saxby said Friday there were no legal challenges standing in the way of the pilots and hunters taking to the air immediately.
"There is no pending order that would keep them grounded," he said.
Judge Gleason said the Alaska Board of Game had the authority to approve the program this fall even if the moose population was fine. The game board could base its decision solely on whether harvest objectives for the McGrath area were being met, she said.
That's because the language in the bill was changed to delete the more specific phrase "prey population objectives" and replace it with "objectives," as in harvest objectives, Gleason said.