Ranchers Regrouping Following
Dismissal Of Suit Over Wolves

By David Bowser

ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico cattle growers were consulting with their attorney this week after a federal judge dismissed their lawsuit aimed at stopping the reintroduction of wolves in the Southwestern U.S.

Senior U.S. District Judge Edwin L. Mechem issued a 48-page order Oct. 28, dismissing a lawsuit brought by the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association in an effort to stop the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's reintroduction of the Mexican gray wolf in New Mexico.

Southwest New Mexico rancher Jimmy Bason, first vice president of the livestock association, says NMCG Executive Secretary Caren Cowan had contacted the group's lawyer, Karen Budd-Falen, and the two were reviewing the decision.

In his dismissal, Mechem rejected the association's claims that the wolves being released are not genetically pure and are hybrids of dogs and wolves. He also rejected the association's claims that wolves still roam the mountains of the Southwest, therefore making it unnecessary to introduce more.

Although he dismissed the suit, Mechem did sound a sympathetic note for the ranchers in his decision. He says the ranchers' concern for attacks on their livestock may be fully warranted.

"Since the gray wolf has been essentially absent from the entire western United States for several decades, the impact of its reintroduction at this time is obviously impossible to predict with any degree of certainty," Mechem writes. "If the reintroduced wolf exacts from these livestock producers any price whatsoever, the economic loss alone is unlikely to be absorbed without great hardship."

Mechem's decision came a week after the head of the wolf reintroduction program stepped down and the same week one of the wolves was reported dead.

Dave Parsons, 52, who headed the wolf reintroduction program for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, took early retirement in September with the understanding, he says, that he would be hired back on a contractual basis to oversee the project. On Oct. 18, he was notified that he would not be re-hired.

The Center for Biological Diversity, another group that has supported the wolf reintroduction program, says Parsons was the only person who had applied for the job.

The center is pressing the FWS to rehire Parsons and release the wolves in the Gila/Aldo Leopold wilderness complex.

While five wolves have been shot to death since the reintroduction program began two years ago, officials are saying there is no immediate evidence of foul play in the death of the wolf whose body was found about 100 yards off U.S. Highway 191 between Clifton and Alpine, Ariz.

Arizona Game and Fish officials were quoted in the Albuquerque Journal as saying there was no external blood on the coat of the animal and metal detectors did not indicate a bullet in the body. Officials say they are still investigating. An autopsy will be performed on the wolf in an effort to determine the cause of death.

Craig Miller with Defenders of Wildlife, a group that has supported the wolf reintroduction effort, says it appears that the animal was hit by a vehicle.

"No one is suspecting that there was a shooting or trapping or poisoning involved," he says.

The death of the female wolf of the Campbell Blue pair leaves her mate alone, officials say. They have not yet decided whether to recapture the male.

There are more than 20 wolves in the wilds of eastern Arizona along the New Mexico border. The remaining wolves are in three packs. Officials are trying to capture one of the packs because of they have attacked livestock near their release site.