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Posted: Thursday, 15 October 2009 2:45PM
NRA Chimes In On Wolf Lawsuit
Jackie Bartz (10/15/09)
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The National Rifle Association weighs in on wolf hunting. The NRA wants to join a lawsuit over the delisting of grey wolves in Montana and Idaho. The government removed wolves from the endangered species list earlier this year. That prompted state officials to authorize a hunting season. Defenders of Wildlife and several other environmental groups sued the government. They say it improperly removed the wolves, and hunting them will cripple recovery efforts. But the NRA is firing back, saying its hunters who are at risk. The NRA filed paperwork saying if the Feds put wolves back on the endangered species list the wolf population will threaten hunters and wildlife.
One of those NRA members is Vincent Pirozzi from Nevada. Pirozzi says he was elk hunting in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in 2005. Pirozzi says several packs of wolves ran a herd of elk into where he was eating lunch. Pirozzi says he was surrounded by about 30 wolves and feared for his life. He says he threw snowballs at the wolves until they ran away. "We were surrounded by all these wolves. I'm saying we've got 11 bullets between us, there's 30 wolves. I hope to hell they're not going to eat us for lunch, we're really concerned cuz the snow was so deep we were two miles from the horses, we were just stuck there."
The Defenders of Wildlife says it doesn't have a problem going head to head with the NRA, but it doesn't want the group spreading lies. A spokesperson for Defenders tells us there are several holes in Vincent Pirozzi's story. Mike Leahy says wolf packs never hunt together. He adds that even if hunters run into wolves there aren't in danger. "Wolves have no interest in people and there's no reports they attack people. There have been some isolated situations where wolves got habituated and got too comfortable with people and lashed out, but that's very rare. There's no reason for people to be scared of wolves, they want to be out there doing their thing and eating and feeding themselves." The lawsuit will go to trial sometime next year.
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