Wolf People seeks review

SANDPOINT - Counsel for Wolf People filed a petition for review Thursday in a bid to overturn its pending license suspension.

The filing comes seven weeks after Idaho Department of Fish and Game Director Virgil Moore signed an order suspending the wolf advocacy group's permit to exhibit wolves to the public for a period of one year.

Had Wolf People not petitioned for judicial review, its exhibition permit would have expired Thursday.

Fish and Game notified Wolf People last June that it was suspending Wolf People's license for allowing members of the public to have direct contact with the wolves and failing to put up a performance bond to foster compliance with a 2012 consent agreement.

The consent agreement was negotiated to resolve more than 40 violations of its commercial license, which included failing to report births and deaths of Wolf People's captive wolves, transferring and transporting wolves without permission, and failing to report of the escape of a wolf in 2011.

The overarching aim of the consent agreement, according to Fish and Game records, was to ensure public safety by erecting barriers to keep the public from touching the predators.

But Wolf People's counsel, Coeur d'Alene attorney Art Bistline, counters that the agreement didn't expressly prohibit people from touching wolves. Bistline asserts that it allowed people to touch wolves under direct supervision and with the permission of Wolf People employees.

The state took action on Wolf People's license after an investigation by Fish and Game and the U.S. Department of Agriculture found evidence that Wolf People employees were allowing people to touch the predators during tours. Some of the evidence appeared on social media networks such as Facebook and Instagram.

Bistline further argues that the one-year license suspension is strictly punitive.

"No remedial measures were proposed by Fish and Game," Bistline said in the petition for review.