Petition challenges legality of Michigan's #wolf hunt

by Aaron Boehm

Posted: 05.22.2014

LANSING -- Keep Michigan Wolves Protected submitted a petition Thursday, demanding the removal of wolves from Michigan's list of game species, which lead to Michigan's first wolf hunt in decades.

The group has submitted the legal petition to Michigan's Natural Resources Commission. The petition states the NRC's wolf hunt decisions were based "on false, deceptive and exaggerated claims--not on principals of sound scientific management as required by law."

Due to a recent case involving farmer John Koski, the petition asks the NRC to remove his farm's depredation numbers from their analysis. Director of Keep Michigan Wolves Protected Jill Fritz stated that "Evidence demonstrates that the NRC unlawfully declared the wolf a game species based on Koski's skewed statistics and other misinformation."

The DNR has responded by saying that removing Koski's records from the data would not have changed their recommendation that wolves be declared a game species in Michigan.

Wolves were designated as a game species on July 11, 2013 by the NRC, claiming a hunt would address wolf conflicts with livestock and complaints about proximity to people.

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