Legal move undoes new law

MARQUETTE - Despite recent action by federal courts that put the gray wolf back on the endangered species list, state legislators paved the way last week to allow wolves to be shot by farmers and dog owners.

The Michigan Senate voted unanimously Thursday to let citizens kill gray wolves in some circumstances, assuming the wolf is removed from the state's threatened species list. Under the legislation, farmers who caught wolves in the act of attacking their livestock would be able to shoot the wolf. Dog owners who caught wolves in the act of attacking their dogs would have the same ability. Wolf killings would have had to be reported to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources within 12 hours.

Previously, only state DNR officials could kill wolves, and that would have remained the case until the DNR finished hearings to remove the gray wolf from the state's threatened species list, which was expected sometime next year. The DNR supported the bills passed Thursday.

State Sen. Mike Prusi, who was a sponsor of the bill, said under the legislation, farmers would have been able to kill a wolf found attacking livestock, then call the DNR to investigate the kill rather than the previous method of calling the DNR to come and either kill or trap the wolf. Attacks on domestic dogs also were included in the bill, in response to some recent incidents across the state, including one in Marquette County.

Prusi said.

However, the issue was rendered moot late Monday by a decision on a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 2007, the Humane Society of the United States, Help Our Wolves Live, and the Animal Protection Institute sued the federal agency over its decision to take the gray wolf off the federal endangered species list in the Great Lakes region.

The U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said the 2007 decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was not supported by the federal Endangered Species Act.

Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota all had been given authority to manage gray wolves in their borders, which was overruled in the court's decision.

"Basically, those (Michigan) bills are dead in the water right now," said DNR wolf management coordinator Brian Roell of the Marquette office. "They would have to have the wolf off the endangered list for those to take effect."