NorthwestJanuary 27, 1996

Tribune

Rep. Helen Chenoweth said she'd have done the same. Bite a biologist, that is.

Siding with an animal rights activist, Chenoweth called it lunacy to catch wolves in Canada, haul them south for release in unfamiliar territory, and then kill one when it does what comes naturally: defend itself with its teeth.

"These wolves have been chased down, forcibly removed from their homes, tranquilized, stuffed into cages, and dropped into unfamiliar territory in the dead of winter. I would have bitten someone, too," said Chenoweth, R-Idaho.

"I find myself agreeing with Dennis Alvey from Friends of the Wolf," Chenoweth said in a prepared statement. "It is flat-out cruel to hunt these wolves down and shoot them with tranquilizing darts in order to export them.

"If the wolves decide they want to come to Idaho, they should do it naturally," she said.

Chenoweth said she asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delay the wolf transplants to no avail. Federal officials disregarded the request and the will of the state, she said.

Wolf activist Steve Paulson, spokesman for the Lenore-based Gray Wolf Committee, said his group also favors natural reintroduction of wolves into Idaho and Yellowstone National Park.

The committee joined another group, Friends of the Wolf, to offer a $7,000 reward to anyone who could free one of the captive wolves in British Columbia before transport to the United States.

Daily headlines, straight to your inboxRead it online first and stay up-to-date, delivered daily at 7 AM

Paulson is in Canada's Yukon Territory with other activists trying to stop that government's wolf control program. The activists say the program is aimed at eradicating wolves. Government officials deny it.

In a prepared statement Friday, Paulson said his Gray Wolf Committee opposes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf recovery plan for the following reasons:

Reintroduction would remove protections now afforded the wolf under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

All wolves, whether introduced or naturally occurring, will be designated as "experimental and non-essential," thereby opening the door to possible death if the animals wander outside a designated "recovery zone."

The U.S. Forest Service has failed to address the creation of habitat corridors that would allow for natural expansion of wolf populations.

Wolves are already reintroducing themselves into Montana through existing corridors from Canada.

Paulson contends wolf recovery must first include "protection of sufficient habitat, obliteration of roads into the habitat, public education" and "an end to all logging and roading of currently unprotected areas, roadless areas and habitat corridors."

Paulson also insists federal wildlife officials are "aware of the presence of native wolf populations" already in central Idaho and Yellowstone.

Daily headlines, straight to your inboxRead it online first and stay up-to-date, delivered daily at 7 AM