Anti-wolf activist Ron Gillett was charged Tuesday with assault and battery after a confrontation with wolf advocate Lynne Stone in Stanley.
Gillett, director of the Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition, was released on his own recognizance, Sheriff Timothy J. Eikens said in a news release.
The Stanley resort owner has had several public confrontations with Stone since 2006. Stone is the executive director of the Boulder-White Clouds Coalition, an environmental group, who has been monitoring wolves in the Stanley area in an effort to keep them from harm.
Wolves in the Northern Rockies are scheduled to be removed from the protection of the federal Endangered Species Act on Friday. Gillett and the coalition are circulating a petition that would prevent state wildlife officials from managing wolves and calls for the predators' removal from Idaho.
Gillett declined to comment when contacted by the Idaho Statesman on Tuesday evening. Stone said she was watching wolves Tuesday at 10 a.m. on the west side of Stanley along Idaho 21 when Gillett drove up and began yelling at her. She pulled out a camera and began shooting pictures of him.
Gillett stormed out of his car, grabbed Stone and tried to wrestle the camera from her, she said.
"He was shaking me so hard he knocked his hat off," Stone told the Idaho Statesman in a telephone interview.
Stone said she called a Custer County sheriff's deputy, who arrested Gillett at his home and took him to the Custer County Jail in Challis.
Rocky Barker: 377-6484
