David Goldman/AP Photo

Hound hunters oppose any effort to impose a ban

By Danielle Kaeding

Published:

• Monday, January 23, 2023, 5:50am

SHARE:  https://www.wpr.org/groups-seek-bar-use-hounds-while-hunting-chequamegon-nicolet-national-forest

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Around 20 wildlife and animal protection groups want the U.S. Forest Service to ban the use of hounds for hunting in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest after Wisconsin’s controversial wolf hunt two years ago.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife filed apetitionThursday with the federal agency to bar use of dogs to hunt black bears and other wildlife.

“I think that 2021 hunt really outlined what these houndsmen are capable of when it comes to wolves,” said Melissa Smith, executive director of Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife. “We know that hounds and wolves have terrible bloody conflict. Now that wolves in Wisconsin are federally protected again, we believe that the Forest Service needs to end…