PRESS RELEASE: No mandatory wolf hunt in Minnesota legislature’s final Environment funding bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 1, 2021

CONTACT: Dr. Maureen Hackett, Howling For Wolves, 612.250.5915 or Leslie Rosedahl, Respond@HowlingForWolves.org, 651.353.1818

No mandatory wolf hunt in Minnesota legislature’s final Environment funding bill

(St. Paul, Minn.) – This week the Minnesota House and Senate passed their agreed-upon Environment Finance Bill, which does NOT contain a provision providing for a required wolf hunt. Governor Tim Walz signed the bill on Tuesday, June 29.

Earlier this spring in the legislative session, the Senate’s omnibus Environment Finance bill (Senate File 959) contained language that directed the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and required (“must have”) an open season (hunt) of wolves.

Current language in Minnesota statute indicates the DNR “may” have a wolf season.

Dr. Maureen Hackett, founder and president of Howling For Wolves, a Minnesota-based wolf advocacy organization said in response:

“We do not need a wolf hunt. As apex predators, wolves have the biological and social structure to control their own numbers. Most worrisome is that government agencies cannot control wolf killing and with legal wolf killing comes more illegal wolf killing.  When wolf packs are broken the effects are unpredictable and can be problematic for farmers.  

“We need nonlethal plans that can prevent conflicts and we need to leave wolves undisturbed to function as social packs. Though there has been talk of an ‘abundance’ of wolves in Minnesota, our wolf packs are the smallest size ever measured at just over three wolves per pack.”

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is expected to release a new draft Wolf Management Plan in the coming weeks.

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Howling For Wolves educates the public about the wild wolf to foster tolerance and to ensure the wolf’s long-term survival. Howling For Wolves opposes wolf hunting and trapping and all wildlife snaring. We advocate for nonlethal prevention methods that reduce wolf-livestock conflicts and support current federal protections for the wolf. www.HowlingForWolves.org.