Group Offers Reward To Set Wolves Free

A group called Friends of the Wolf is trying to sabotage a plan to send 38 British Columbia wolves to Wyoming and Idaho.

It is offering a $5,000 reward to anyone who finds the wolves and frees them.

“Wolves have a real hard time existing throughout one-third of the province because they’re being poisoned, trapped and shot,” coordinator Dennis Alvey said Saturday.

“Our wolves are not for sale or export.”

The U.S. government is paying $275,000 for the wolf-relocation program. The wolves are being captured north of Fort St. John, B.C.

Shooters in helicopters hit them with tranquillizers. Then the wolves are caged and taken to a secret location near Fort St. John to await their flight south.

Four wolves were captured on the first day of the hunt last week.

Some conservation groups have endorsed the plan to reintroduce the grey wolf to Wyoming and Idaho.

But Alvey said now is not the time to move the wolves.

“We want to see wolves back in their original habitat, at the right time and the right place. We don’t think now is the right time to take them out of British Columbia, where wolves face a lot of threats.”

Instead, Alvey wants protected-habitat corridors.

“We have to think about linking up wilderness areas,” he said. “That’s part of the whole idea of bringing wolves back to the States - they’ve got to be able to flow naturally.”

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