Damnit those are the gray wolves originally out of Canada! I remember this program and it was a fantastic joint venture (though the US gov't tried to block it back then too by cutting funding).

Here's a bit of information from a case study...

http://www.bioethics.iastate.edu/cla.../graywolf.html

What does Bush and his buddies need another trophy animal to shoot at? Do they not get how important a predator like a wolf is to the health of the hoof stock it feeds on? That wolves also control the overpopulation of rabbits and various other small rodents. That the carcass they leave behind feeds many other animals in their natural world!

In many places where wolves have been hunted out of existance, deer populations explode. The deer begin to overgraze and then winter starve, they can end up with TB, they come in contact with farm stock and that stock becomes infected.

If the wolves have become over-populated then move some to other places that need a top predator for proper balance. Gunning them down, removing wolves that may be the alpha's of their packs, for an animal that survives best in a stable family group...that's just cruel! How sad that some people can't even allow the wild places to be wild anymore.