Wolf advocates sue to stop Idaho hunt

An Idaho wolf season that many believed was a certainty was placed at risk over the weekend as three conservation groups requested an emergency injunction to halt wolf hunting from a federal appeals court. Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Clearwater and WildEarth Guardians asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals to stop the wolf hunts until an appeals case regarding the congressional budget rider that removed wolves from federal protection can be decided. James Tutchton, attorney for Alliance for the Wild Rockies, argued that the injunction is absolutely necessary, as a decision on the congressional budget rider that removed wolves from protection in Idaho and Montana could be two years in the making. "In the meantime, states like Idaho and Montana could shoot the majority of the wolves that live there," he said. "Wolves could be totally wiped out in particular parts of Idaho, which would set recovery back even further." But the issue is not really about wolves, Tutchton argued, but rather about the "sleazy" way that wolves were removed from protection under the Endangered Species Act. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, attached a rider to a nearly 500-page congressional budget bill that forced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to re-issue its 2009 Final Rule. The rule stated that wolves in Idaho, Montana and parts of Washington and Oregon were recovered and therefore should be removed from the Endangered Species Act...more

I find myself in agreement with Tutchton. Just about everything the Congress does is "sleazy".

When they originally passed the ESA it was "sleazy."   But talk about your sleaze: the ESA hasn't been reauthorized since Sept. of 1992.  Congress just keeps funding and the FWS keeps enforcing a law that is no longer on the books.  Now that, Mr. Tutchton, is sleaze of the highest order.