MINNEAPOLIS — Every year, gray wolves kill dozens, if not hundreds, of farm animals in Minnesota.

It’s not just wolves — coyotes also known to sometimes prey on livestock for food. But with wolves it’s different: If a coyote is after an animal, a farmer is well within their right to shoot it. Wolves, on the other hand, are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act, which means only government agents can legally kill them unless they’re threatening a human life.

It’s that distinction that prompted the state to create a program years ago that pays livestock producers for the animals they lose to wolves.

In the last decade, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture has paid out an average of $135,000 on about 110 wolf depredation claims each year.

Gray wolves once roamed across much of the lower 48 U.S. states, but hunters and government programs targeted wolves to try to prevent loss of livestock. In the 1950s, gray wolves numbered fewer than 750 in Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Minnesota had the only reproducing gray wolf population in the U.S. outside of Alaska when, in 1973, the animals were listed under the Endangered Species Act, protecting them from hunts. In subsequent decades, their numbers have increased to more than 2,000 in Minnesota. The most recent wolf population report from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources estimates the Minnesota wolf population at 2,655 animals.

In 2007, gray wolves were taken off the endangered species list in the western Great Lakes region, but judge’s action re-listed them. This cycle of de-listing and re-listing happened several times between 2009 and 2014.

Every time the issue comes up, there are passionate voices on each side. On the one hand are ranchers, who say wolves have reached healthy population levels and are hurting their ability to make a living. On the other are advocates of the animals, who say despite wolves’ protected status, the animals have not recovered to their natural range, and that they serve as an important part of Minnesota’s ecosystem.

Under Minnesota law, producers can be reimbursed for livestock killed by wolves — as long as investigators can prove that wolves were the cause of an animal’s death. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture gets an appropriation from the Legislature to pay out claims to producers whose livestock have been killed by wolves.

If a farmer suspects an animal was killed by wolves, they’re asked to contact an investigator with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Services or the DNR. In Kittson County, sheriff’s deputies are also trained to investigate wolf depredation.