Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ-01) introduced legislation that expands predator support programs to provide full reimbursement to ranchers for livestock harmed by Mexican gray wolves.
“Every week, I hear from constituents who are suffering from livestock depredations by Mexican wolves,” O’Halleran said. “The wolves have a devastating impact on farms and ranches in New Mexico, and the federal government has a duty to compensate them. This legislation will create a more easily accessible and steady stream of compensation for New Mexico ranchers, and I look forward to working across the aisle to move this bill forward.”
O’Halleran’s bill would reimburse ranchers and producers at 100 percent of market value—up from the current 75 percent—and establish an emergency relief program to support livestock owners with herds that have been adversely affected by the wolves.
The measure is supported by the Arizona and New Mexico Farm Bureaus, who stated the current program does not adequately address the impacts of wolves and that the bill increases the “resiliency among our ranching communities by better compensating ranchers for the true cost of wolf presence.”
