.:Minnesota Wolves in Crisis Again:.

.:As Reported by the Minnesota Wolf Alliance:.



The Minnesota DNR has a proposed wolf bill that calls for an even more liberal polcy than the wolf killing bill that MN House of Representatives passed last year.

This DNR bill includes a bounty, widespread "predator control" areas, and allows indiscriminate landowner killing throughout the State. This bill is expected to get introduced in the Senate then merged with last year's House wolf bill in a conference committee. We also expect that a bill referred to as a "roundtable bill " may resurface.

The proposal calls for incentive inducing killing contracts by "certified" trappers. The new DNR bill requires that"the commissioner shall pay a certified gray wolf predator controller $100 for each wolf taken."

The House bill already passed includes hunting and trapping. While the DNR bill suggests a five-year wait before opening a hunting season, the legislature is likely to shorten the wait.

The DNR proposal allows landowners to kill wolves for any perceived threat to their pets or livestock. "Perceived threat" is defined so broadly that it allows a complete free-for-all killing of wolves throughout the State of Minnesota. This same liberal wording was included in the "roundtable bill ".

The DNR wants to establish an agriculture zone throughout most of the state where they would be able to keep "predator control areas" open for a full five years after any verification of wolves killing livestock or domestic pets. In the "wolf zone" predator control areas can be left open for 30 days or longer at their discretion. Any wolf that comes within these one-mile or larger "control areas" can be shot on sight.

Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior is quoted as saying, "It's time for us to leave the wolves alone and start living in harmony with them. The future survival of these rare and beautiful creatures must not be jeopardized by bullets and senseless killings."


.:What you can do to help:.

Please write or call your Minnesota Legislators, Governor Jesse Ventura, Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Residents of Minnesota should call or write their legislators. Contact information for your senators and representatives can be found by calling the Minnesota Senate Index at (651) 296-0504, Minnesota General information at (888) 234-1112, or on the web at Minnesota General information

.:Addresses:.

The Honorable Governor Jesse Ventura
130 State Capitol
75 Constitution Ave
St. Paul MN 55155

Donald J. Barry, Assistant Secretary of Fish, Wildlife and Parks
Department of Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240

Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of Interior
Department of Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240

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