Wolf Hunt Ruling Expected Friday

A Dane County judge will rule on Friday on whether hunters can train their dogs to hunt wolves this winter in the state’s new wolf hunting season. Lawyers for opponents and supporters of restricting the use of dogs laid out their arguments during a court hearing Wednesday.

More than 16,000 hunters have already registered for the hunt scheduled to begin right after the November gun deer season. Only 2,000 permits will be issued, and only 200 wolves can be killed. At issue in the court case is the lack of restrictions on dogs being trained to hunt the wolves.

The Humane society’s attorney Carl Sinderbrand told the judge dogs should be kept out of the hunt until rules to protect them are adopted.Sinderbrand said, “What we’ve asked the judge to do is to make sure that the dogs and people and wolves are protected as this hunting season unfolds.”

The Department of Natural Resources argues that hunters are already allowed to use dogs to hunt bears, and although many dogs are killed by wolves during bear season, hunters are ready to risk the loss of a dog to hunt wolves. The agency also says the humane society does not have legal standing to challenge the wolf hunt rules.

Judge Petersen will take up the legal standing issue at a court hearing on September 14th. This Friday, Peterson could block the issuing of wolf hunt licenses until he makes a final ruling on training dogs for the hunt. The Department of Natural Resources issued a release saying that delay could derail the plan for the state’s first wolf hunt set to begin in November.

Updated: The state’s first wolf hunt is scheduled to begin October 15^th. Current season rules prohibit hunters from using dogs until after the gun deer season, which ends November 25^th. Should the court allow it, dogs still will not be legally allowed to hunt wolves until November 26^th. The wolf season is scheduled to run through February 28^th.