Washington, D.C. – Based on arguments presented by Safari Club International (SCI) the Minnesota Court of Appeals today dismissed a legal challenge to Minnesota’s wolf harvest. The Court ruled that the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Howling for Wolves failed to show their members were harmed by the process used by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to establish the state’s wolf season.
“The Minnesota Court of Appeals made the right decision today,” said SCI President Craig Kauffman. “SCI will remain at the forefront to challenge organizations like CBD at every turn. We hope that every hunter understands the threat that organizations like CBD play in undermining scientifically determined hunting seasons across the country.”
Earlier in the case, the state’s attorneys defeated the challengers’ attempts to shut down the wolf hunt on an emergency basis. SCI then joined the case to help defend the state’s rulemaking process. SCI’s brief and oral argument to the court focused on the animal rights groups’ lack of standing to challenge the rulemaking. The Minnesota Court agreed with SCI and ruled that the petitioners had failed to demonstrate that they had suffered any harm from the rulemaking. Instead, the Court found that the groups merely disagreed with the legislature’s policy of allowing wolf harvests and this was not a sufficient basis for bringing a legal challenge to the rules that administer that policy.
SCI’s in-house litigation attorneys were assisted by Minnesota local counsel Ryan Burt of the firm of Halleland Habicht PA. Burt is also President-Elect of SCI’s Minnesota Chapter.
Contact: Nelson Freeman, Media@safariclub.org
About the SCI Hunters’ Convention:
Safari Club expects upwards of 20,000 international hunters to descend on Las Vegas, Nevada February 5-8th, 2014. The SCI Hunters’ Convention represents the largest and most successful event to raise money for advocacy to protect hunters’ rights. The 2014 Hunters Convention will be the largest in the organizations history with nearly a million sq. ft of exhibits and 2,500 vendors.
About SCI’s Hunter Advocacy
SCI is the leader in protecting the freedom to hunt through advocacy and lobbying in International treaty organizations, Federal and State legislatures, and litigating in federal and state courts. SCI lobbies on all legislation effecting hunter access, public land management, and fights against regulations that negatively target the hunting public.
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Safari Club International – First For Hunters is the leader in protecting the freedom to hunt and in promoting wildlife conservation worldwide. SCI’s approximately 200 Chapters represent all 50 of the United States as well as 106 other countries. SCI’s proactive leadership in a host of cooperative wildlife conservation, outdoor education and humanitarian programs, with the SCI Foundation and other conservation groups, research institutions and government agencies, empowers sportsmen to be contributing community members and participants in sound wildlife management and conservation. Visit the home page www.safariclub.org or call (520) 620-1220 for more information.
SCI's arguments win Minnesota wolf case
