(KCPW News) One Utah lawmaker is declaring war on wolves. Republican Senator Allen Christensen says the predators have been federally protected for too long, and now too much damage is being done.
“There are people out there who say that it’s natural for wolves to kill and for that thing to happen, but it’s not natural for people to kill. But, now the wolves are walking right into peoples backyards, they’re killing pets, they’re killing dogs, they’re killing cattle and sheep,” he said yesterday.
Senator Christensen wants wolves off the endangered species list. He’s running a resolution he hopes will urge Utah’s congressmen in Washington to put wolves back under control of the states.
“The Endangered Species Act says ‘they will be restored in all their prior habitat areas,’ well that means New York City and Chicago. The people pushing the Endangered Species Act say well, until they are there we are going to protect all the wolves,” said Christensen.
The resolution passed unanimously out of committee. Wolves were nearly wiped out by ranchers decades ago but since their re-introduction in the early 1990s, federal law has protected them. There are no known wolf packs in Utah, but they have been seen here.
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