ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- An Anchorage judge says an incentive program to kill more wolves in the interior is illegal. This morning judge William Morse issued a temporary restraining order against what he calls a bounty on wolves killed by hunters in airplanes.
It was just last week when Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Denby Lloyd announced what he called an incentive program for aerial wolf hunters. For each wolf killed in five designated regions throughout the interior hunters would get $150. Lloyd ordered the incentive because the state is lagging far behind the number of wolves it wants to kill this winter. The state wants to reduce wolf numbers in order to increase the moose and caribou population.
But the new twist on aerial wolf hunting drew legal action from the Sierra Club, Friends of Animals and Defenders of Wildlife. This morning the groups called for a temporary restraining order and went before Superior Court Judge William Morse. The groups claim the incentive amounts to a bounty, something the commissioner has no authority to issue on his own.
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