LEGAL EFFORTS TO STOP THE SLAUGHTER

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/13/us-wolves-northernrockies-idUSTRE77C2HS20110813
|"Wolves in Idaho and Montana were delisted this year in a provision attached to a stopgap budget bill approved by Congress in April. It was the first time an animal had been delisted through a political process rather than scientific review.

The two states crafted hunting seasons as conservation groups unsuccessfully argued before U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy in Montana that Congress had violated the constitutional separation of powers among branches of government by intervening in an ongoing legal dispute.

In his August 3 ruling, Molloy sided with attorneys for the Obama administration, who argued that Congress had effectively amended the Endangered Species Act even though lawmakers sponsoring the provision strongly denied at the time they were tampering with the nation's landmark conservation law.

Alliance for the Wild Rockies and others on Monday asked the Ninth Circuit to overturn the ruling by Molloy, who wrote that his hands were tied by a prior Ninth Circuit decision which found Congress did not overstep its bounds when it amended law by implication rather than separate legislation.

Environmentalists are now asking the Ninth Circuit to temporarily halt wolf hunts pending the court's decision on the appeal of Molloy's ruling. The overall aim of conservationists is to restore federal safeguards to wolves.

An Obama administration spokesman on Saturday declined comment on the latest twist in the long-running legal battle over wolves."