HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A federal appeals court has denied a request by environmentalists for an emergency injunction to halt wolf hunts scheduled to start in a few weeks in Idaho and Montana.
In a decision filed Thursday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the request by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. The group was seeking to cancel the hunts while the court considers a challenge to congressional action that stripped wolves of federal protections in Montana and Idaho, and in parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula reluctantly upheld a budget rider that was inserted by Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. It marked the first time since the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 that Congress forcibly removed protections from a plant or animal.
