The New Mexico Association of Counties, which represents the state's 33 counties, voted unanimously at their meeting in Elephant Butte earlier this month, to oppose the reintroduction of Mexican gray wolves into the state, the Farmington Daily Times reported today on its Web site.

"These wolves were kicked out of Arizona," San Juan County Commission Chairman Tony Atkinson told the Daily Times. "They're not wild."

"The New Mexico Association of Counties shall oppose any rule or proposed rule related to the reintroduction of the Mexican gray wolf that does not provide the opportunity for continual involvement of New Mexico's county elected officials in the decision-making process," said the resolution passed on April 4.

According to the Daily Times, county officials have repeatedly expressed their concerns about people's safety, their own exclusion from the planning of management of federal programs under whose purview wolf regulation lies, inability to address problem wolf behavior and related livestock issues -- including "insufficient compensation" to ranchers.

Click here (pdf download)  to see the entire resolution.