ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— A newly revealed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service document allows Catron County ranchers to kill any one endangered Mexican gray wolf who happens to be in the area of two grazing allotments near Quemado, New Mexico. The permit doesn’t identify which wolf the ranchers can shoot, nor does it specify livestock lost to wolves preceding this kill authorization.

Several wolf families are in the area, including a likely pregnant, genetically valuable female wolf of the Elk Horn pack who was named Nora by the Endangered Wolf Center in Missouri before she was released into the Arizona wild as a pup in 2020. Nora is one of the 21% of genetically valuable captive-born pups known to have survived such releases without their birth parents.

“The permit allows the permittees to kill any wolf they see on private or federal land, in retribution for alleged and undisclosed livestock losses. This is not how to solve livestock-related conflict and it’s certainly not how species are recovered,” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project. “It’s basically a blank check for the revenge killing of any Mexican wolf who wanders by, and it’s outrageous.”

The kill authorization allows any of seven people, including a Catron County commissioner, to shoot and kill any wolf on six large tracts of private land in an area north of the Gila National Forest. It also allows shooting a wolf on nearby public lands if the wolf is supposedly in the act of attacking livestock.

“Nora’s rare genes gave her a shot at freedom but mean nothing to government officials whose main concern is sacrificing wildlife and public lands for livestock industry convenience,” said Michael Robinson, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s both sad and maddening to watch another reckless lobo execution in the making and to know that Nora, not to mention the unborn pups she may be carrying, might never again follow the scent of elk in the morning breeze or contribute to the future of her imperiled subspecies.”

“Nora was released from the Mexican wolf Saving Animals From Extinction (SAFE) program to help boost the genetics of her imperiled species. And now the very agency tasked with Mexican wolf recovery is allowing political pressure to influence their efforts? This is unacceptable. We trust you with the well-being of these wolves,” said Regan Downey, director of education and advocacy at the Wolf Conservation Center, a SAFE participant.

Peer-reviewed research has consistently found that killing wolves does not reliably reduce livestock depredations and can destabilize wolf pack structure in ways that increase conflict. Removing breeding adults or disrupting social cohesion can fragment packs and lead to inexperienced wolves targeting easier prey such as livestock.

“This is not a conflict-reduction strategy — it’s political appeasement. Broad kill permits do nothing to address the root causes of livestock losses and risk setting back recovery,” said Michelle Lute, Ph.D. in wolf management and executive director of Wildlife for All. “The standard should be demonstrated use of effective nonlethal tools, not simply the absence of attractants. If recovery is the goal, coexistence must come first.”

“The issuance of this kill permit simply confirms what we already know about how lobos are ‘managed’ in the wild: it’s not science, it’s politics,” said Leia Barnett, New Mexico conservation lead for WildEarth Guardians. “It’s disconcerting but unsurprising to see wildlife agencies employing regressive, ineffective tools that harm lobo recovery efforts all at the behest of the livestock industry. Lobos and all the Americans who love them are asking for better.”

“Killing wolves at random is not an effective way to protect livestock, nor is it effective at curbing calls for even more killing by wolf-hating livestock interests,” said Mary Katherine Ray, wildlife chair for the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club. “It is a way to inflict cruelty on wolves and their bonded family packs and squander important and irreplaceable genetic diversity. That it would be allowed on public land by the agency tasked with lobo recovery is beyond disheartening.”

“This is not conflict prevention, it’s conflict escalation. Removing breeding adults destabilizes packs, increases risk and sets recovery back years. Nora survived against extraordinary odds to strengthen the genetics of her imperiled species,” said Claire Musser, executive director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project. “To authorize her death now, without requiring meaningful prevention standards, is reckless. We need enforceable nonlethal requirements and transparent accountability, not broad permissions that gamble with the future of Mexican gray wolves.”

Mexican gray wolves were eliminated from the wild in the United States and Mexico by a 20th century U.S. government wolf trapping and poisoning program on behalf of the livestock industry. This unique subspecies was saved through breeding of just seven wolves after passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973. Federal wolf killing after the 1998 reintroduction has reduced genetic diversity and authorizing ranchers to kill wolves threatens additional damage.