The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will discuss a petition Sept. 8 from wolf advocates seeking new restrictions on killing wolves to protect livestock.

The proposed restrictions include limiting lethal control to wolves that actually attacked livestock, rather than targeting a pack in general.

Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Staci Lehman said Wednesday the department doesn’t know which individual wolf is preying on livestock. Some wolves seen at carcasses may be scavengers, she said.

“It would essentially be impossible to know with any certainty which wolf in a pack was involved in depredating on livestock,” she said.

The department removes wolves in hopes of changing a pack’s habits, she said. “It’s not tit-for-tat, where we kill a wolf for attacking livestock,” she said. “The goal of lethal removing is changing pack behavior.”

Wolf advocates have failed several times in petitions to the commission or lawsuits to cast aside Fish and Wildlife’s wolf-removal protocol in favor of rules embedded in the Washington Administrative Code.

Fish and Wildlife managers have argued that a flexible policy that allows for case-by-case judgments gives the department its best chance to foster support in rural communities for wolf recovery.

A little over a year ago, the commission voted 5-4 to not adopt a formal rule, which was sought by wolf advocates and Gov. Jay Inslee.

Since then, two of the five commissioners who voted against the rule have been replaced by new Inslee appointees, while all four who favored a rule are still on the commission.

Wolf advocates in July again petitioned for a wolf-removal rule. An Inslee spokesman said Wednesday the governor’s office has not seen the petition and that he couldn’t speculate on the governor’s position.

Center for Biological Diversity attorney Sophia Ressler said in a statement that enforceable rules are needed to hold wildlife managers accountable.

“We’re proposing rules to work within the department’s flawed framework, but we hope amendments will strengthen protections and stop the senseless slaughter of Washington’s wolves,” she said.

The commission could reject the petition or direct the department staff to write a rule. The proposal by the wolf advocates expressed what they want.

The advocates proposed barring Fish and Wildlife from killing wolves on public lands or counting attacks on public lands as strikes against packs.

Advocates also propose requiring ranchers to have a department-issued permit before shooting a wolf attacking livestock. Current law allows ranchers to kill wolves caught in the act of preying on livestock.

In places with high wolf-livestock conflict, Fish and Wildlife would be barred from killing wolves if range-riders had not moved or bunched up cattle to prevent predations, according to the wolf advocates’ proposal.

Some ranchers allow range-riders to move cattle, but the state shouldn’t demand it, said Scott Nielsen, head of the Cattle Producers of Washington range-riding program.

The rule would deepen the feeling that more burdens are being put on ranchers, while the state fails to manage wolves, he said.

“Ranchers would resist the notion that WDFW has any authority in their livestock decisions,” Nielsen said.

The commission is scheduled to take up the wolf advocates’ petition in the afternoon Sept. 8. The meeting can be watched online.