By Howard Fischer
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PHOENIX — A Benson Republican lawmaker says Arizona lawmakers need to be aware of the lessons of a fairy tale when they consider whether to preserve the Mexican gray wolf.

“Little Red Riding Hood understood that this is a predator that we’re dealing with,” said Rep. Lupe Diaz. And that, he told colleagues, is why Arizona needs a law to ensure the state doesn’t cooperate with certain federal efforts to restore its population in the state.

“The whole story of Little Red Riding Hood is that this predator’s going to get you,” he said as the state House this week gave preliminary approval to Senate Bill 1280.

That measure, which has cleared the Senate, would bar the Arizona Game and Fish Department from transporting gray wolf puppies into the state. And it would keep the commission from using any of its resources to accomplish the same purpose.

The vote came over objections from several Democrats who pointed out the wolf has been on the endangered species list since 1976. And Tucson Democratic Rep. Nancy Gutierrez said it is only by bringing in more pups raised in captivity that there is a chance to get the genetic diversity to remove the wolf from federal protections.

But supporters of the legislation contend there already are enough wolves in Arizona.

Diaz told colleagues in northeast Arizona and northwest Mexico that communities have built “cages” to protect children against wolf attacks. That assertion drew a skeptical response from Rep. Mae Peshlakai who said she has lived in the Grand Canyon area all her life and picks piñon nuts in season.

“And I have never been attacked by anything out there,” said the Cameron Democrat.

“They’re well-behaved animals,” she said. “They’re scared of human beings. And they will not attack anything that doesn’t attack them.”

Sandy Bahr of the Sierra Club said she has never heard of an attack on a human, though she acknowledged wolves will attack cattle. But the Arizona Livestock Board has a program to provide compensation for confirmed wolf kills as well as grants for ranchers to put in non-lethal methods of preventing attacks.

Rep. Gail Griffin was unpersuaded.

“In Southern Arizona, there is no prey bait except for cattle, kids and animals,” said the Hereford Republican.

Strictly speaking, nothing in SB 1280 would bar Game and Fish from working with federal agencies to try to restore a sustainable population of wolves in Arizona.

“Population goals are on track to be met,” said agency lobbyist Ed Sanchez. He said there are 124 Mexican gray wolves in Arizona and 162 in New Mexico, with the goal of hitting 320.

But genetics, he said, are another matter. And Rosalind Switzer, a volunteer for Great Old Broads for Wilderness, told lawmakers that, due to capture, poaching and removal, all the wolves now in Arizona can trace their lineage back to just seven pairs.

“Wolves in the wild are related like siblings,” she said. “Avoiding health and reproductive issues that arise from inbreeding is of the upmost importance.”

That’s where the pups raised in captivity elsewhere come in, placing them in dens with wild wolves.

Sanchez said that, except on rare occasions, his agency isn’t directly involved with transportation.

“Once genetic diversity and population goals are met, the Mexican wolf will be delisted and the Mexican wolf will be managed by the Arizona Game and Fish Department,” Sanchez said. “Why wouldn’t we want to maintain the current flexibility to occasionally deploy resources to ensure population and genetic diversity goals to ensure that delisting will occur sooner rather than later?”

Diaz, however, said he believes the current 268 wolves are sufficient, saying there’s no basis for claims that their numbers need to reach 320 to be self-sustaining.

“We don’t have to expand the program any more,” he said.
Much of the debate, however, turned on the question of whether the wolves are dangerous to humans or could be a benefit to the state.

At one point, there even was a suggestion that having wolves in the wild could become a tourist attraction. That idea didn’t impress Diaz.

"You wouldn’t want to have tourism around these mature animals,” he said. “They can be dangerous.”

The debate about what should be Arizona’s role in preserving the Mexican gray wolf comes against the backdrop of a proposal by Arizona Republican Congressman Paul Gosar to delist the wolf, prohibit the federal government from releasing wolves from captive breeding programs into the wild, and eliminate federal prohibitions against killing wolves.

“Lawsuits filed by extremist environmental groups have prevented the Mexican wolf from being delisted nationally, even though the Mexican wolf was released into Arizona and New Mexico as part of an experimental program,” he said in a prepared statement when introducing his HR 4255 last year. It cleared the House Natural Resource Committee in January.

Gosar, like Diaz, noted the original target was to have 100 wild wolves in the area.

“Now a stable population, the wolf is no longer in danger of extinction and should be delisted,” he said.

Sanchez said if Gosar’s measure becomes law, it then will be up to the state to decide what to do with the Mexican gray wolf and whether to maintain its own programs to have a stable population.

“It could be where, like other wildlife, the Game and Fish Department would take responsibility of those wolves going forward,” he said.