Don't worry about the law ...

... what do the ranchers want?

Some wildlife researchers claim the US Fish and Wildlife Service ignored the legal requirement "to make decisions about listing species solely on the basis of the best scientific and commercial data available" when they removed the Grey Wolf from the endangered list.  Instead, they relied on local human opinion (and, you want to bet, pressure from those humans' elected representatives?)  This is so unsurprising that it's hardly worth posting except that it mirrors so exactly the behavior of other agencies, like, say, the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, which suppressed studies about speed limits it didn't like.  Fact is, Grey Wolves don't pay taxes or vote, so we can hardly expect a tax-funded agency to hear their opinion.  However, if the only opinion it hears is that of the local folks who believe, wrongly by the way, that a handful of canids are responsible for stock losses, then that's another matter.  Because the rest of us who don't live in Idaho or Montana or Wyoming might have an opinion, too.