New wolf killing laws prompt push to revive protections

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Wildlife advocates are pressing the Biden administration to revive U.S. government protections for gray wolves across the Northern Rockies after Republican lawmakers in Idaho and Montana made it much easier to kill the predators.

The Humane Society and other groups filed a legal petition Wednesday asking Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to use her emergency authority to return thousands of wolves in the region to protection under the Endangered Species Act.

State lawmakers passed legislation in recent weeks that would allow hunters and trappers to kill unlimited numbers of wolves using aggressive tactics such as shooting them from ATVs, employing night-vision scopes to hunt at night and setting lethal snares that some consider inhumane.