Anchorage, Alaska - Aerial wolf hunting will go on -- until the issue heads to trial this spring.

Today Anchorage Superior Court Judge Sharon Gleason issued a ruling that rejects a request from animal rights advocates. Friends of Animals and others sued the state, asking that Alaska's aerial wolf control program be stopped until the May trial.

But Judge Gleason wrote that the plaintiffs failed to show killing as many as 610 wolves this year, which is part of the plan, would cause irretrievable damage to the species.

The goal of the wolf program is to boost moose populations in some areas of the state.
There is no word on whether anima l rights advocates will appeal the ruling.