We the undersigned of this petition call for the recent passage of the delisting of the gray wolves of the northern Rockies to be considered detrimental to their success to flourish as a reintroduced species to the western U.S. The gray wolves were under the protection of the Endangered Species Act until recently when they were delisted again in the Spring of 2011 by Congress.
Currently there are less than 2000 wolves in the northern Rockies and with the return of wolf management to the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming these numbers will be drastically reduced. Under the recent state proposals the intent is to eliminate anywhere from 50 -80% of the current wolf populations. In Wyoming there is a proposal to shoot a wolf on sight that is waiting to be ratified.
With such extreme state kill goals of the wolves, there is little chance that the genetic health of the populations can be maintained. When population numbers fall too low this allows for more inbreeding to take place and with inbreeding comes all kinds of genetic and health problems. The original intent of the wolves to be under the ESA protection was to allow them to be able to breed with enough genetic diversity to allow for healthy wolf populations not subject to increased disease and biological problems.
It is our belief that this recent delisting violates not only the constitutionality of it's passage but also threatens the genetic health of an entire wolf population that was not so long ago reintroduced to help bring back and maintain the health of the western ecosystems of the U.S. This petition is calling for the delisting to be nullified on these grounds.
