New In the Press:
By Rene Romo
Journal Southern Bureau
LAS CRUCES — The endangered Mexican gray wolf recovery program suffered another setback with the discovery Thursday of an adult lobo shot to death in eastern Arizona.
The case, now under investigation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s law enforcement arm, marks the second time in less than a month that an adult male from the Hawks Nest pack was found shot to death.
In addition to those losses, the alpha male of the San Mateo pack was found slain in southwest New Mexico under suspicious circumstances in late June, and the alpha male of a third pack, the Paradise pack on the Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona, has been missing since mid-April.
“I am deeply saddened by this news,” said Benjamin Tuggle, director of the FWS Southwest Region. “It is hard for me to understand why someone would violate the law so heartlessly by killing one of our nation’s endangered species.”
The collared carcass of the Hawks Nest male was found Thursday northeast of Big Lake within two miles of the spot where the pack’s alpha male, designated 1044, was discovered slain on June 18.
The loss of the pack’s two adult males leaves two females, including a yearling, to care for and sustain survivors among the seven pups whelped in the spring. “¦
Click Here to read the full article, published in the Albuquerque Journal on July 17, 2010 (non-subscribers can click on the trial button).
Please submit a letter to the editor of the Albuquerque Journal urging immediate action to stop the killings and to release the Engineer Springs family of captive wolves into the wild: http://www.abqjournal.com/letters/new.
For more actions you can take to help pull Mexican wolves back from the brink of extinction, Click Here.
Reward offered:
Together, federal and state agencies, private donors, the Phoenix Zoo, Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sky Island Alliance, Animal Protection of New Mexico, Wild Earth Guardians, and the Animal Defense League of Arizona have offered a total of $52,000 for information leading to the apprehension of someone responsible for shooting a Mexican gray wolf.
In the past week, WildEarth Guardians , the White Mountain Conservation League, the Southwest Environmental Center, the Humane Society of the U.S., the Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust, the Wildlands Network, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, and the Grand Canyon Wildlands Council have pledged an additional $6,800 for the reward. Added to the existing reward, the total amount offered is now up to $58,800.
Click Here to print reward posters for distribution. These look great and really grab people’s attention when printed on bright “day-glo” colored paper.
