According to the US 'The Hill' report, on September 4th local time, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order ordering the Interior Department and the Agriculture Department to allow ranchers to hunt wolf packs if necessary in order to protect their livestock.
Trump also instructed the Interior Department to assess whether the endangered status of gray wolves should be revoked.
"They are destroying these enterprises," Trump stated in the Oval Office of the White House that day, "You watch as they rush into your herd, and they're very violent. The situation is terrible."
"The problem is that they're listed as endangered species, so you can't shoot them."
On the 4th, Trump signed an executive order on social media at the White House.
Due to hunting and other human activities, gray wolves were listed as endangered species in the United States for the first time in 1967.
After the number of the species recovered, during Trump's first term in office, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued final regulations in 2020, removing the gray wolf from the endangered species list in all 48 states. However, wildlife conservationists filed lawsuits to restore protection for this animal. Later, a federal judge overturned the decision of the FWS.
In December last year, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill aimed at restoring the final regulations established by the FWS in 2020, thereby removing gray wolves from the endangered species list once again. The bill is currently under consideration in the Senate.
Reports say this is one of the measures taken by the Trump administration to address the decline in livestock numbers and to reduce domestic beef prices.
Previously, the Trump administration made a controversial decision to eliminate the high tariffs on imported beef products in order to help reduce the prices of food groceries for Americans. This move was opposed by cattle breeders and some Republican lawmakers.
But Trump still announced on the 4th that this relief measure would apply to beef imported from countries like Argentina and Brazil.
