In a huge victory for gray wolves, a California court just struck down the awful 2020 decision to remove their endangered species protection status. This is an amazing step forward, but unfortunately, the areas where wolves are most under attack - Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho - are not included in this court decision. We must put pressure on the Department of the Interior to relist the species as endangered across all states, not just some!
Sign now to demand that the Department of Interior relist the species as endangered across the entire country!
Since gray wolves were officially stripped of their federal protections after a decision made by Trump in 2020, there has been a dramatic rise in instances of the majestic predators being killed by hunters. And while some states have taken key steps towards wolf protection, many have wolf populations that are plummeting. Relying on individual states to manage gray wolves on their own has been devastating, resulting in overhunting, breaches of Tribal nations' rights, and insidious loopholes that allow the killing of wolves that cross state lines.
We cannot rely on state-by-state legislation to protect these wolves, in part because wolves, like so many megafauna, roam and wander across massive territories -- which include multiple states. Animals obviously do not understand the concept of human-created "borders," and should not suffer the consequences of arbitrarily drawn lines on maps. On top of that, we know that the Montana governor himself sidestepped the law for a chance to murder a wolf in 2021. So how can we expect state legislatures to properly manage wildlife populations when their leaders are so committed to illegally killing innocent animals?
The recent California ruling was a crucial step in the right direction, and still helps gray wolf populations overall. But we must protect these innocent animals where they need it the most desperately, and the best way to do that is by fully relisting them under the Endangered Species Act. Sign the petition now to put pressure on the Department of the Interior!
