{"id":44322,"date":"2026-02-24T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nywolf.org\/?p=44322"},"modified":"2026-02-25T10:58:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:58:38","slug":"trump-administration-allows-ranchers-to-kill-endangered-mexican-wolf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nywolf.org\/2026\/02\/trump-administration-allows-ranchers-to-kill-endangered-mexican-wolf\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Administration Allows Ranchers to Kill Endangered Mexican Wolf\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. \u2013 A newly revealed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service document allows Catron County ranchers <\/a>to kill any one endangered Mexican gray wolf who happens to be in the area of two grazing allotments near Quemado, New Mexico. The permit doesn\u2019t identify which wolf the ranchers can shoot, nor does it specify livestock lost to wolves preceding this kill authorization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several wolf families are in the area, including a likely pregnant, genetically valuable female wolf of the Elk Horn pack who was named Nora by the Endangered Wolf Center in Missouri before she was released into the Arizona wild as a pup in 2020. Nora is one of the 21% of genetically valuable captive-born pups known to have survived such releases without their birthparents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe permit allows the permittees to kill any wolf they see on private or federal land, in retribution for alleged and undisclosed livestock losses. This is not how to solve livestock-related conflict and it\u2019s certainly not how species are recovered,\u201d said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project. \u201cIt\u2019s basically a blank check for the revenge killing of any Mexican wolf who wanders by, and it\u2019s outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kill authorization allows any of seven individuals, including a Catron County commissioner, to shoot and kill any wolf on any of six large tracts of private land in an area north of the Gila National Forest. It also allows shooting a wolf on nearby public lands if supposedly in the act of attacking livestock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNora\u2019s rare genes gave her a shot at freedom but mean nothing to government officials whose main concern is sacrificing wildlife and public lands for livestock industry convenience,\u201d said Michael Robinson, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. \u201cIt\u2019s both sad and maddening to watch another reckless lobo execution in the making and to know that Nora, not to mention the unborn pups she may be carrying, might never again follow the scent of elk in the morning breeze nor contribute to the future of her imperiled subspecies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNora was released from the Mexican Wolf Saving Animals From Extinction (SAFE) program to help boost the genetics of her imperiled species. And now the very agency tasked with Mexican wolf recovery is allowing political pressure to influence their efforts? This is unacceptable. We trust you with the well-being of these wolves,\u201d said Regan Downey, director of education and advocacy at the Wolf Conservation Center, a SAFE participant.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peer-reviewed research has consistently found that killing wolves does not reliably reduce livestock depredations and can destabilize wolf pack structure in ways that increase conflict. Removing breeding adults or disrupting social cohesion can fragment packs and lead to inexperienced wolves targeting easier prey such as livestock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not a conflict-reduction strategy \u2014 it\u2019s political appeasement. Broad kill permits do nothing to address the root causes of livestock losses and risk setting back recovery,\u201d explained Michelle Lute, PhD in wolf management and executive director of Wildlife for All. \u201cThe standard should be demonstrated use of effective nonlethal tools, not simply the absence of attractants. If recovery is the goal, coexistence must come first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe issuance of this kill permit simply confirms what we already know about how lobos are \u2018managed\u2019 in the wild: it\u2019s not science, it\u2019s politics,\u201d said Leia Barnett, New Mexico Conservation Lead for WildEarth Guardians. \u201cIt\u2019s disconcerting but unsurprising to see wildlife agencies employing regressive, ineffective tools that harm lobo recovery efforts all at the behest of the livestock industry. Lobos and all the Americans who love them are asking for better.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKilling wolves at random is not an effective way to protect livestock, nor is it effective at curbing calls for even more killing by wolf hating livestock interests,\u201d said Mary Katherine Ray, Wildlife Chair for the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club. \u201cIt is a way to inflict cruelty on wolves and their bonded family packs and squander important and irreplaceable genetic diversity. That it would be allowed on public land by the agency tasked with lobo recovery is beyond disheartening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not conflict prevention, it\u2019s conflict escalation. Removing breeding adults destabilizes packs, increases risk, and sets recovery back years. Nora survived against extraordinary odds to strengthen the genetics of her imperiled species,” said Claire Musser, executive director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project. “To authorize her death now, without requiring meaningful prevention standards, is reckless. We need enforceable nonlethal requirements and transparent accountability, not broad permissions that gamble with the future of Mexican gray wolves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mexican gray wolves were eliminated from the wild in the U.S. and Mexico by a 20th century U.S. government wolf trapping and poisoning program on behalf of the livestock industry. This unique subspecies was saved through breeding of just seven wolves after passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973. Federal wolf killing after the 1998 reintroduction has reduced genetic diversity and authorizing ranchers to kill wolves threatens additional damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media contacts: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greta Anderson, Western Watersheds Project (520) 623-1878, greta@westernwatersheds.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Robinson, Center for Biological Diversity, (575) 313-7017, michaelr@biologicaldiversity.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regan Downey, Wolf Conservation Center (914)763-2373, regan@nywolf.org<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michelle Lute, Wildlife for All, (505) 552-2501, michelle@wildlifeforall.us<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leia Barnett, WildEarth Guardians, (970) 406-2125, Lbarnett@wildearthguardians.org<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary Katherine Ray, Rio Grande Chapter Sierra Club, (575) 537-1095 mkrscrim@gmail.com<\/a>Claire Musser, Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project, (928) 202-1325 claire@gcwolfrecovery.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. \u2013 A newly revealed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service document allows Catron County ranchers to kill any one endangered Mexican gray wolf who happens to be in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":44323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2490,2493],"tags":[100,2580],"class_list":["post-44322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mexican-gray-wolves","category-new-mexico","tag-mexican-gray-wolf","tag-press-release"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nywolf.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nywolf.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nywolf.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nywolf.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nywolf.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nywolf.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44324,"href":"https:\/\/nywolf.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44322\/revisions\/44324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nywolf.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nywolf.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nywolf.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nywolf.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}