Aerial-gunning foes ask Obama to ban practice

 

BOISE -- A wildlife advocacy group has asked President Barack Obama to end aerial gunning of coyotes and other predators, citing an incident in Idaho where a shotgun-wielding parachutist fired on a wolf as an example of how the practice is rife with abuses.

New Mexico-based WildEarth Guardians Friday asked Obama to issue an executive order.

The group's 39-page petition also urged the president to banish spring-loaded sodium cyanide devices and other predator poisoning methods from federal public land, on grounds they're dangerous and indiscriminate.

In June, an eastern Idaho sheep rancher was flying a powered parachute above a 160-acre sheep pen when he fired on a wolf.

Though it's unclear if the animal was actually hit, wolves in Idaho are considered big game, not predators. So shooting at them from the sky is illegal even with a state-issued airborne predator control permit.