Idaho fights judge’s wolf ruling: Agency says it doesn’t want to pay for poaching enforcement

While the Idaho Department of Fish and Game doesn’t want people to poach or illegally kill wolves in Idaho, it doesn’t want to pay to enforce those rules either, its spokesman said. “We definitely feel with the current state of the status of the wolves, the federal government has an obligation to pay,” spokesman Ed Mitchell said, emphasizing that the department won’t turn a blind eye to illegal wolf killings either. “(Funding is) going to have to come from somewhere and the (Fish and Game Commission) determined that as long as we don’t have a funding source, i.e. tag sales, the funding should come from the federal government.” That’s just part of the latest salvo since a federal judge returned gray wolves to the endangered species list at the beginning of the month. On Monday, the Fish and Game Commission passed a resolution pledging its support for overturning U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy both in the courts and in Congress, and laid out its objections to his decision: it’s “contrary to State management of wildlife, the intent and purpose of the Endangered Species Act and the clear biological recovery of wolves.”...more