[fabsroman]

Multibeard, I never got the e-mail, but did a little research on my own. I must say, good Lord, no wonder the Courts are packed and we pay a lot in taxes.

It seems as though there were two decisions recently. One in 2004 by the Oregon US District Court Judge Robert Jones. In that case, the issue was whether or not the grey wolf could be downlisted from "endangered" to "threatened" by USFWS. The Endangered Species Act ("ESA") requires that specific scientific testing be done before a species is downlisted from endangered to threatened. According to Judge Jones, this was not done by USFWS. Hence, they could not downlist the grey wolf. Downlisting the grey wolf means that certain protections would be taken away and that wolves could be killed in certain circumstances.

Now, in 2005, it appears that USFWS gave 20 permits to Michigan and 34 permits to Wisconsin, but the wolf was not removed from the endagered species list. According to the ESA, before a species can be hunted, the USFWS must do specific scientific research and it must provide an opportunity to the public, including scientific experts, to be heard on the subject. Seems as thought the USFWS did not do this either. This case was in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

Somehow, I think this might be an issue with USFWS not adhering to the law. Might be that they would not be able to grant the permits if they adhered to the law and performed the scientific research and let the public speak on the issue. Who knows.

I haven't actually researched the ESA, or even read it, but have relied on what I have read in a couple of articles, which appear to be slanted toward the tree huggers.

Okay, I found the entire Oregon case. The legal citation is 354 F.Supp2d 1156 (D. Or. 2005). If you punch in that info, less the parantheses in Google or another search engine, you will probably find the case. I don't have time to read it tonight, but will try to read it tomorrow while I wait in Court for my case to be called.

Seems as though there was another 2003 case in the Federal Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. There was also another 2005 case in the US District Court for Wyoming with Judge Alan B. Johnson.

I ran into a case or two that deals with the reintroduction of the grey wolf in Vermont. That should make things really fun.

All this money spent on legal fees and Court time for grey wolves. We should spend this much time and money trying to resolve more significant issues in America. Alas, we are going the way of the Romans. Politics and law is getting so thick that it takes 1,000 attorneys to do anything.