SAVING THE MEXICAN GRAY WOLF

The smallest gray wolf subspecies in North America, the Mexican gray wolf is also one of the rarest and most endangered mammals on the continent. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (and its predecessor agency) poisoned and trapped almost all Mexican wolves from the wild from 1915 until 1973; the last five survivors, captured between 1977 and 1980, were bred in captivity and their progeny reintroduced in 1998.

The Center has worked continuously to reintroduce the Mexican wolf to the wild and to provide it with protection from government and private persecution, beginning with a 1990 court case that led to the wolf’s eventual reintroduction. Along the way, we’ve helped defeat two livestock-industry lawsuits that sought to compel the government to trap or kill all the Mexican wolves from the wild, and we helped defeat a bill in the House of Representatives that would have terminated the reintroduction program. Our advocacy induced the government to re-release trapped wolves into the Gila National Forest, and our 2006 lawsuit led to an ongoing process to reform management of the wolf program so more wolves are left in the wild. 

Most recently, in May 2008, we sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over a policy called SOP 13 that requires the removal of any wolf believed to have killed livestock three times in a year. We’re also challenging the Service for its decision to hand over management of the wolves to a group hostile to recovery and largely made up of government agencies dominated by the livestock industry. Through our work, we’ve educated thousands of people about the crucial ecological role of wolves and rallied the public to oppose the policies leading to ongoing government shooting and trapping of Mexican wolves.