™ Volume 72, No. 11
® November 2015
Why You Need the McKittrick Policy by Dalene Hodnett, Director of Communications and Media Relations
A rogue’s gallery of federally endangered species. From top left: Chiricahua Leopard Frog, Southwest Willow Fly Catcher, Rio Grande Silvery Minnow. At bottom left: Mexican Gray Wolf and New Mexico Meadow Jumping Mouse. All photos courtesy of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service
In 1995 a hunter in Montana, Chad McKittrick, accidentally shot a wolf thinking it was a wild dog. He was convicted under the Endangered Species Act and although he appealed the decision explaining that he did not intend to kill a wolf, both the District Court and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction. He appealed to the Supreme Court and as the federal government was preparing to defend the conviction, the Justice Department decided they would not pursue ESA cases where they could not prove the defendant knowingly injured a protected species. This became known as the McKittrick Policy and it has been in place for the last 20 years. Fortunately the McKittrick policy has held, releasing from liability hikers who have squashed protected plants, fishermen who have accidentally hooked the wrong trout and kids who chose to play with the wrong species of lizard. Now however, the WildEarth Guardians and the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance have sued the Department of Justice for failing to prosecute those who have unknowingly killed endangered animals. In their lawsuit, the groups have asked the federal court to invalidate the McKittrick Policy claiming that people who kill federally-protected species can avoid prosecution if they simply claim they mistook the identity of the animal. Why after 20 years have the activist groups filed a lawsuit? Because on December 28th of last year a wolf was shot and killed by a hunter chasing coyotes. Since this was the first wolf documented in the Grand Canyon area in over seventy years, he was obviously not expecting the presence of a wolf. He was not prosecuted citing the McKittrick Policy. The new litigation is specifically aimed at those who harm wolves, but it is so broad, and the number of endangered continued on page 5 “McKittrick”
November 2015
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