Aaron Kunz, OPB News | August 30, 2011

Idaho opened its 2011 wolf hunt Tuesday. And critics across the country started speaking up.

One group asked people at Central Park in New York City to call Idaho Governor Butch Otter and ask him to stop the hunt.

The New York-based group Friends of Animals says this effort in a response to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision last week. It turned down a request to stop the wolf hunts in Idaho and Montana.

Friends of Animals spokeswoman Edita Birnkrant says her group is asking Americans to boycott trips to Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming until the hunts are stopped.

“This is another way to get attention and kind of force them to deal with it. Like look, you want to ignore this, you think this is going to be okay with the rest of the country and American s. But guess what, it’s not, there are a lot of people that are going to hit you economically,” Birnkrant said.

Idaho and Montana have open hunts this year. Idaho’s hunt is underway, and Montana’s starts Saturday.