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Editor's Note: In 1998 the International Wolf Center invited concerned organizations to submit a position statement on the status of wolves
for distribution on its web site. A new request for current statements has gone out to these and other organizations and statements will
be updated as they are received. (return to list of Organizations)
We fully support the delisting of the timber wolf from the Endangered Species list. We also support
the legal harvesting of wolves with the management and control being handed down to the state DNR.
We believe the timber wolf is one of the greatest success stories of the Endangered Species Act. But,
the time has come to start a management and control plan. We believe this will be best accomplished by:
- Allowing a landowner to protect their families, pets and livestock under guidelines to be adopted;
- Fair compensation according to market value of animals lost, whether livestock or pets;
- Trapping and/or hunting by qualified or certified trappers/hunters who have attended an
education/orientation seminar before licenses will be issued.
It would be a shame for management to be left up to Mother Nature to eliminate the over-abundance of
timber wolves through over-population disease when human control can keep the wolf population under
Mother Nature's allotted population size. Examples: Red fox population eliminated by mange; raccoon
population decimation by distemper.
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