FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ENR WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1996 (202) 616-2771 TDD (202) 514-1888 IDAHO GREY WOLF CASE DISMISSED WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Idaho rancher Eugene Hussey today moved to dismiss his lawsuit against the United States over its program to reintroduce grey wolves into the wilderness, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Today's settlement, filed in U.S. District Court in Boise, resolves a lawsuit brought by Hussey in September 1995, over the death of his calf in January 1995. In his lawsuit, Hussey alleged that the calf was killed by a grey wolf returned to the Idaho wilderness by the federal government. The United States, based on medical evidence developed in the case, believes that the wolf did not kill the calf, but acknowledges that it did eat some of the calf after it was dead. Based on these facts, the United States, although denying any responsibility for the death of the calf, agreed to pay Hussey $440 to cover a portion of the legal costs he incurred in resolving this matter. The United States' Grey Wolf Reintroduction Program represents the culmination of a twenty year process attempting to recover the species in an area from which it was systematically eliminated. The Reintroduction Program imported grey wolves from Canada and reintroduced them into two wilderness areas in the United States--the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and the Central Idaho Wilderness. ### 96-599