Fish and Wildlife Service Passively Monitors Red Wolves’ Continued Decline

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 30, 2015

Fish and Wildlife Service Passively Monitors Red Wolves’ Continued Decline

Chapel Hill, N.C. –The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (The Service) announced today that it will suspend proactive efforts to recover the only remaining wild population of 50-75 Red Wolves, which includes an immediate stop to its wolf reintroduction program.

Jamie Rappaport Clark, President and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife issued the following statement:

“What the Service described today is a passive monitoring strategy that falls well short of what is needed to continue Red Wolf recovery. Rather than actively protecting the few wolves remaining in the wild, the Service is managing them through continued study and neglect. 

“The Service needs to be actively working to recover Red Wolves, not just monitoring and studying them. They need to put an end to lethal control, develop collaborative local partnerships and stronger legal protections and improve coexistence measures for Red Wolves.

“Defenders of Wildlife is a leader in developing innovative and effective methods for minimizing conflict between people and wildlife and promoting incentives for keeping wolves on the landscape. That is exactly what Red Wolves urgently need today. The Service must continue to work with local private landowners and other stakeholders to implement nonlethal tools and programs that help them coexist with wolves.”

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Defenders of Wildlife is dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities. With more than 1.2 million members and activists, Defenders of Wildlife is a leading advocate for innovative solutions to safeguard our wildlife heritage for generations to come. For more information, visit www.defenders.org and follow us on Twitter @DefendersNews.