WHEREAS, the red wolf is threatened with extinction and in March 1965 was placed on the list of rare and endangered species by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service; and
WHEREAS, it is generally agreed that the decrease in the red wolf population has come about partly because of government control programs, which in a large measure were directed by the Bureau of Sports Fisheries and Wildlife; and
WHEREAS, the Bureau reports a general curtailment of its control activities in areas where animals thought to be the red wolf might occur; and
WHEREAS, the Bureau reports that it is making an effort to identify the areas where red wolves might occur and to conduct a program that will provide needed protection to this animal; and
WHEREAS, because of the extremely critical status of the population of the red wolf, even individual animals ought not to be sacrificed as a result of a control program;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the American Society of Mammalogists at its 1967 annual meeting on June 21, recommends that all federal predator control be discontinued or held to a minimum on National Forest and other public lands in Arkansas and in east Texas, and that where control programs are necessary the Bureau support the State Extension Specialist System of predator control in conjunction with the proposed regional extension control system; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Bureau and other qualified agencies be urged to take steps immediately to finance an ecological study of the remaining populations of the red wolf; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be sent to the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Interior, the Assistant Secretary of Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, the Commissioner of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Director of the Bureau of Sports Fisheries and Wildlife, and the Chief of the U. S. Forest Service and appropriate officials in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas.