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Ranchers could kill endangered Mexican gray wolves without permits under GOP proposal [1]

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Date: 2026-02-10  

Republican lawmakers pushed through a slew of bills Monday that would allow the endangered Mexican gray wolf to be killed, removed from its endangered category and give the legislature regulatory authority over hunting and fishing.

The House Committee on Land, Agriculture and Rural Affairs heard a number of bills Monday, with four of them directly aimed at the Mexican gray wolf.

The Mexican gray wolf, whose most recent population estimates put it at around 286, have long been the target of cattle ranchers, who have been actively lobbying the Trump administration to delist the animal from the Endangered Species Act.

Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar introduced a measure to delist the wolf from the act last year.

In fact, one of the bills heard before the committee Monday was a House Concurrent Memorial urging the President, Congress and Secretary of Agriculture to do what Gosar proposed in 2025.

“This will help encourage them to continue moving this forward until we see the wolf delisted,” Chairman Lupe Diaz, R-Benson, said about HCM2006, specifically mentioning Gosar’s legislation.

And Diaz’s House Bill 2159 would require the Arizona Game and Fish Department issue permits to landowners to allow them to kill Mexican gray wolves on their property. It also would allow the department to give compensation for the “humane and non-lethal trapping” of wolves and allow for them to issue sport hunting “opportunities consistent with rules adopted by the department.”

Jim deVos, the Mexican wolf coordinator for Game and Fish, told the committee that even if HB2159 is passed and signed into law, it would be in conflict with the federal Endangered Species Act, making any permit issued moot.

But Diaz said he had no problem with that — and in fact would relish it, as it would serve as the basis for a lawsuit challenging the Endangered Species Act and its infringement on state sovereignty.

Opponents said it would be a waste of money to intentionally pass a law that can’t be implemented solely to spark a taxpayer-funded lawsuit.

“I think that this bill is unconstitutional, and if we do pass it, there will be a lawsuit we will lose, and the State of Arizona will be on the hook for the bill,” Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, D-Tucson, said. “I’m questioning the fiscal responsibility of us pushing forward with this piece of legislation when it is unconstitutional.”

Diaz was less concerned, telling his colleagues that the bill still has to work its way through the legislative process and will be determined constitutional or not there.

But that’s not the way it works. While a panel of legislators evaluates every bill considered by the full chambers for passing constitutional muster, that determination isn’t legally binding, and courts have the final say in determining whether laws are constitutional or not.

While the Mexican gray wolf had multiple bills targeting them — HCM2006, HB2159 and House Bill 2787, which would disallow state dollars to be used for conservation efforts — another Diaz bill put other animals in the crosshairs.

House Bill 2158 would expand the definition of predatory animal in state law to include bears, mountain lions, cougars and wolves.

“The reason is because we do have ranchers,” Diaz said, explaining the bill. “There have just been a lot of reports — bears, cougars, mountain lions and wolves taking over and killing the livestock.”

Diaz claimed that children in New Mexico have been hiding in “cages” while waiting for school buses to avoid Mexican gray wolves because the animals are a threat to people. Salon reported in 2013 that the cages, which resemble chicken coops, don’t do much to protect people because wolves rarely, if ever, attack people.

They are “a publicity stunt designed to stoke opposition to Mexican wolf recovery in general and to the federal government in particular,” Daniel MacNulty, who’s been studying wolves in Yellowstone National Park for the past 18 years, told National Geographic. The Mirror could find no confirmed reports of Mexican gray wolves attacking people.

“The issue of predatory animals, that is a classification that is meant for very widespread and abundant species like the coyote,” deVos said to the committee, adding that permits are issued for animals such as bears or mountain lions which allows for a larger amount of data collection, which isn’t the case for coyotes.

“Someone who has an Arizona hunting license can kill coyotes at any time of the year. There is no bag limit, it very much is unrestricted,” Sandy Bahr, Director of the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter told the committee. “So, putting animals in that category who do not have higher numbers is inappropriate.”

Diaz and other Republicans on the committee argued that the bill is about allowing people to protect themselves, despite Game and Fish telling them that the law does currently allow for people to defend themselves from animals that are posing a threat.

“Once we put it as a predatory animal, it gives the abilities for the ranchers — this is where it is coming from…they want to be able to (kill) that animal without having to run and get a permit for a bear, a cougar…and eventually the wolf,” Diaz said. “We want to give the ranchers that right under the predatory list of animals.”

Currently, predatory animals only include foxes, skunks, coyotes and bobcats.

Briana Romero of Humane World for Animals said that the bill could also open up the opportunity for poachers who traffic things like bear gallbladders and other organ sales.

The committee also heard a bill that would put all of these issues — issuing permits, setting limits on hunts — entirely under lawmakers’ purview.

The bill is an attempt to get around voters, who refused to add the same language to the Arizona Constitution in 2010.

House Bill 2497 by Rep. Michael Way, R-Queen Creek, would shift power from the Game and Fish Department and the Arizona Game and Fish Commission to the legislature, which would have the “exclusive authority to regulate hunting, fishing and harvesting wildlife.”

It also says that Arizonans have the “right to hunt” and would prohibit the legislature from enacting any rules that restrict hunting in any way.

Way called it an “insurance policy” to prevent a “future issue.”

“So, we’re solving a future issue that currently doesn’t exist?” Rep. Mariana Sandoval, D-Goodyear, asked Way, who responded by saying it was meant to preclude the legislature from fixing anything in the future.

“So, this currently is not a problem in Arizona?” Sandoval responded. Way replied that she was correct.

“Most people understand that hunting is a privilege not a right, and that privilege can be lost when abused,” the Sierra Club’s Bahr said about the bill. She also noted that the bill would have the legislature taking on more responsibilities in an area that they are not experts in.

Todd Rathner, a lobbyist for the Phoenix Chapter of Safari Club International, said his organization supports the bill. The group has connections to Trump and, at its convention in Nevada, was selling items that likely violated Nevada’s wildlife trafficking law.

“The legislature has the authority to regulate hunting as much as they want to,” Rathner said. “They could dissolve the (Game and Fish) commission if they want to.”

All the bills passed along party lines and will next head to the full House of Representatives for consideration.

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[1] Url: https://azmirror.com/2026/02/10/ranchers-could-kill-endangered-mexican-grey-wolves-without-permits-under-gop-proposal/

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