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U.P. Senator Apologizes For Fictionalized Wolf Threat Story

The state senator who led the campaign for a wolf hunt has now apologized for using a fictional story to highlight the need to remove the Gray Wolf from the endangered species list.

Tom Casperson, a state senator from Escanaba, sponsored a resolution in 2011 urging the federal government to de-list the wolf. Casperson included a story about children at an Upper Peninsula day care who were threatened by three wolves.

He admitted Thursday on the Senate floor that story wasn’t exactly true.

“The children were not in the backyard as the resolution implied nor were the wolves killed in the backyard of the day care. Rather, three wolves were eventually killed in the vicinity,” he said. “I was mistaken. I am accountable.  And I am sorry.”

Casperson insists the fictionalized story does not diminish the need for a wolf hunt in the U.P.

State officials hope hunters will kill 43 wolves in the hunt that begins next Friday.