Save the only wild red wolf population by limiting their numbers to just 15 in the wild?

That’s exactly what U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is suggesting under their new proposal.

Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) released its “Proposed Replacement of the Regulations for the Nonessential Experimental Population of Red Wolves in Northeastern North Carolina, a scientifically unsound plan that will no doubt result in the extinction of red wolves in the wild.

A small group of no more than 15 red wolves would be maintained in the North Carolina management area. Any wolves that wander outside of this zone would not be protected and could be legally hunted.

“It hurts to think that 20 out of the 35 wolves we have left in the wild on planet Earth are going to be fair game for anybody to shoot,” said Ron Sutherland of Wildlands Network.