FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Phone 505.773.4897
Email: lif.strand@gmail.com


CATRON COUNTY TO APPROVE LETHAL TAKING OF MEXICAN WOLF
Commissioners Will Approve Ordinance next Wednesday


Catron County, New Mexico. Citing the rising number of close encounters with wolves, particularly where children are involved, the Catron County Commissioners approved a resolution on Wednesday, January 17, which sets the stage for enacting a county-wide ordinance allowing the Commissioners to give the go-ahead to kill Mexican wolves which threaten human lives.

The Catron County Commission agenda for the next Commission meeting on Wednesday, January 24 in Reserve, New Mexico, includes approval of an ordinance which defines the circumstances under which the County may issue a “Dispatch Order”, which is direction issued by the Catron County Commission for physical removal of a wolf by lethal means from within the borders of Catron County. The Dispatch Order will instruct the County’s Wolf Incident Investigator, Jess Carey, to notify the US Wildlife Service to remove an identified wolf from the County within twenty four hours, or Carey is authorized to execute the removal himself. The Order is meant to make sure that the identified wolf is permanently removed, so that the threat is eliminated and the wolf will not have any opportunity to re-enter the boundaries of Catron County.

Carey says that an attack on a human, particularly a child or an elderly person, is inevitable at the rate the incidents of wolf attack are occurring on dogs, cats and other domestic animals which live close to or with humans. In November, for instance, a dog was attacked by a wolf within several feet of an eight year old girl. The Commissioners and Carey agree that existing rules and standard operating procedures for the Mexican Gray Wolf Reintroduction Project are not sufficient to ensure protection of humans and that the County has the right and the obligation to protect its citizens.

For more information contact Bill Aymar, Catron County Manager, 505.533.6462 ccmanager@gilanet.com