Prior to this fall's wolf hunt in Wisconsin, the state DNR Board set the quota at 300 wolves. Staffers at the Department of Natural Resoures, though, overruled them and set the quota at 130. Last year's hunt raised eyebrows and ire when Wisconsin hunters took almost 100 wolves over the quota in three days, some using packs of dogs to run down the wolves.
But a Wisconsin judge has put an end to the season altogether with a temporary injunction in favor of animal advocacy groups that have argued the hunt is unconstitutional.
Before that ruling came in October, six Wisconsin Ojibwe tribes filed suit in September against the Department of Natural Resources and Natural Resources Board, contending the hunt violates their treaty rights and endangers an animal they consider sacred.
And as wildlife biologist Peter David of the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission explains, the proposed wolf hunts ignore conservation science and the ethos of the Anishinaabe people.
