Free: Contests & Raffles.
One wolf has been killed by a hunter hired by Washington, a state where the animals have been regaining a foothold in recent years after being hunted to extinction in the early 1900s.The state Department of Fish and Wildlife said hunters were back out Monday, targeting three more wolves in the Huckleberry Pack to protect sheep in rural southern Stevens County.Wolves from the Huckleberry Pack this month have killed 22 sheep and injured three more, despite preventive measures, the agency said.Environmental groups oppose the hunt.Wolves began moving back into the state in the early 2000s from Idaho and Canada, and they are protected under state and federal law. The state exterminated an entire pack of wolves to protect a herd of cattle in mountainous Stevens County in 2012.The most recent hunt is designed to protect a herd of 1,800 sheep owned by Dave Dashiell of the town of Hunters, located about 50 miles northwest of Spokane."Unfortunately, lethal action is clearly warranted in this case," said Nate Pamplin, the agency's wildlife program director, on Monday. "Before we considered reducing the size of the pack, our staff and Mr. Dashiell used a wide range of preventive measures to keep the wolves from preying on the pack."Non-lethal activities are continuing, he said.Amaroq Weiss of the Center for Biological Diversity said the hunt proves the state prefers to kill the wolves."The department has never been interested in making sure sufficient non-lethal conflict measures are in place," Weiss said. "They have wanted to gun for these wolves from the start."The state could have used rubber bullets or paintball rounds to harass the wolves, but instead resorted immediately to airborne snipers, she said.On Saturday, crews found five dead and three injured sheep that were attacked Friday night or early Saturday morning, the agency said. Investigators confirmed that wolves were responsible for all of the attacks.On Saturday evening, a marksman contracted by the Department of Fish and Wildlife killed one member of the pack from a helicopter. The agency has authorized killing three more wolves from the pack, which contains about a dozen wolves.Wolves were driven to extinction in Washington in the early 1900s by a government-sponsored eradication program on behalf of the livestock industry. Their population has grown to at least 52 wolves today.Some ranchers and hunters vehemently oppose the return of the wolves, saying the animals prey on livestock and deer populations.The current situation in Stevens County meets all of the agency's conditions for lethal removal, Pamplin said. That includes repeated wolf kills; the failure of non-lethal methods to stop the predation; the attacks are likely to continue; and the livestock owner has not done anything to attract the wolves.Dashiell has maintained a continual human presence with his flock since Aug. 14, when the Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed the first wolf attacks. He has used four large guard dogs to safeguard the pack and has buried sheep carcasses whenever possible, the agency said. Up to four Department of Fish and Wildlife employees and two range riders also have helped watch the flock.
WDFW sure splashes the owner of the livestock's name all over the interwebs. Given the potential for harassment by wolf-huggers and what the Diamond M went through; I'd think long and hard about bringing that to my family had I problems with wolves. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/hunter-hired-washington-state-kills-wolf-25118910QuoteOne wolf has been killed by a hunter hired by Washington, a state where the animals have been regaining a foothold in recent years after being hunted to extinction in the early 1900s.The state Department of Fish and Wildlife said hunters were back out Monday, targeting three more wolves in the Huckleberry Pack to protect sheep in rural southern Stevens County.Wolves from the Huckleberry Pack this month have killed 22 sheep and injured three more, despite preventive measures, the agency said.Environmental groups oppose the hunt.Wolves began moving back into the state in the early 2000s from Idaho and Canada, and they are protected under state and federal law. The state exterminated an entire pack of wolves to protect a herd of cattle in mountainous Stevens County in 2012.The most recent hunt is designed to protect a herd of 1,800 sheep owned by Dave Dashiell of the town of Hunters, located about 50 miles northwest of Spokane."Unfortunately, lethal action is clearly warranted in this case," said Nate Pamplin, the agency's wildlife program director, on Monday. "Before we considered reducing the size of the pack, our staff and Mr. Dashiell used a wide range of preventive measures to keep the wolves from preying on the pack."Non-lethal activities are continuing, he said.Amaroq Weiss of the Center for Biological Diversity said the hunt proves the state prefers to kill the wolves."The department has never been interested in making sure sufficient non-lethal conflict measures are in place," Weiss said. "They have wanted to gun for these wolves from the start."The state could have used rubber bullets or paintball rounds to harass the wolves, but instead resorted immediately to airborne snipers, she said.On Saturday, crews found five dead and three injured sheep that were attacked Friday night or early Saturday morning, the agency said. Investigators confirmed that wolves were responsible for all of the attacks.On Saturday evening, a marksman contracted by the Department of Fish and Wildlife killed one member of the pack from a helicopter. The agency has authorized killing three more wolves from the pack, which contains about a dozen wolves.Wolves were driven to extinction in Washington in the early 1900s by a government-sponsored eradication program on behalf of the livestock industry. Their population has grown to at least 52 wolves today.Some ranchers and hunters vehemently oppose the return of the wolves, saying the animals prey on livestock and deer populations.The current situation in Stevens County meets all of the agency's conditions for lethal removal, Pamplin said. That includes repeated wolf kills; the failure of non-lethal methods to stop the predation; the attacks are likely to continue; and the livestock owner has not done anything to attract the wolves.Dashiell has maintained a continual human presence with his flock since Aug. 14, when the Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed the first wolf attacks. He has used four large guard dogs to safeguard the pack and has buried sheep carcasses whenever possible, the agency said. Up to four Department of Fish and Wildlife employees and two range riders also have helped watch the flock.comments from the article:wiseoldindian 9 hours ago"Environmental groups oppose the hunt."So do I. Wolves were here many thousands of years before any man. Many thousands of more years before the white man. This is their home and they have a right to live here. If your sheep need land to destroy, let them destroy land you already occupy. If there isn't enough land for that, maybe there are just too many people.blockmccloud > wiseoldindian 5 hours agoWolves were on this planet far longer than non native invasive livestock and "welfare" RANCHERSDavidShellenberger 8 hours ago Wolves should be protected. Ranchers and farmers should use non-lethal deterrence to protect their livestock. The state's killing wolves is inhumane and is a subsidy of a special interest.blockmccloud 5 hours ago Gray wolves are an endangered species in WA State. A few non native invasive sheep were killed. Who can blame the wolves for doing what comes natural to them? This lazy welfare rancher, where was he when his sheep were being eaten by the wolves? Wolves will be wolves, but lazy ignorant ranchers need to change their tactics when watching over their non native vermin sheep. Becky Tufts 5 hours ago TELL THE TRUTH HERE!!! NOT JUST THE WDFW's side!! This is a witch hunt plain and simple. They have 2 dogs for 1800 sheep....the rancher left his herds unattended for DAYS!!! He has them spread out all over the place unattended!! They have taken NO Non Lethal measures what so ever to deter the wolf!! They have purposely left rotting Sheep carcass' out to lure the wolfs in to kill them. This is a SLAUGHTER!!!! 123tl78 2 hours ago It takes time to set up a system of nonlethal methods to protect thousands and thousands of livestock (prey animals). It can't be done in a few days. Different types of livestock guardian dogs each have a purpose in what job they perform when protecting this large a number of livestock. Range riders, noise and lights and fencing help but it has to be a 24/7 operation and it should have been part of the cost of doing business as a livestock owner when knowingly living in wild country that has predators (aka everywhere on the earth). Livestock are easy pickings with no protection. The predator will go for the easy prey to avoid getting hurt or killed. Unfortunately ranches were able to expand to gigantic size and numbers of livestock in this country for so long without having to pay for and implement nonlethal livestock protection practices because the predators were almost wiped out because in the past people in this country thought of them as vermin instead of an integral part of nature and the predator, prey, plant life connection. There are always consequences when predators are killed off. The prey populations explode and overgraze plant life and spread diseases that normally would have been taken care of if the predators were able to weed out the ill and weak prey animals. You think the wolves are going to figure out that if a few of their pack are killed that some livestock owner doesn't want them there? They don't think that way. They just know some place has plenty of easy pickings because no one is protecting them, so the predator will pay the price because of a system in this country that encourages livestock owners from using nonlethal methods of protecting livestock as a standard part of doing business. Paying off livestock owners for killed livestock only encourages them to not do anything to protect their livestock and killing predators to appease livestock owners perpetuates the failed system and the predators will lose again after all this effort to restore apex predators to their rightful place in nature. So now we have these enormous livestock ranches with thousands of prey animals with no protection for their livestock except once again killing off predators. Some ranchers care and will put in the effort to coexist but not enough yet. Don Dashiell 5 hours agoSo far your comments have been extremely ill-informed. blockmccloud > Don Dashiell 4 hours ago You're ignorant and you're a "welfare" rancher blockmccloud > Don Dashiell 4 hours ago You're one of those wingnut commissioners in Stevens County who want all the wolves REMOVED. You're are an extremist and a rural parasite
This is curious to me, why WDFW would bother with 4 out of the 12, and not take all 12 out or not take any out. I understand there's probably 4 culprits that's responsible for the bulk of the killings, but really does anyone think there's a wolf made that can skip by a flock of sheep and not take a couple out then come back for 2nds, 3rds and so on?There can only be one outcome, the sheep removed or the wolves removed. Killing 4 wolves and leaving an estimated 8 left (probably double that in reality) is just asking for more dead sheep.
Quote from: KFhunter on August 25, 2014, 11:34:53 PMThis is curious to me, why WDFW would bother with 4 out of the 12, and not take all 12 out or not take any out. I understand there's probably 4 culprits that's responsible for the bulk of the killings, but really does anyone think there's a wolf made that can skip by a flock of sheep and not take a couple out then come back for 2nds, 3rds and so on?There can only be one outcome, the sheep removed or the wolves removed. Killing 4 wolves and leaving an estimated 8 left (probably double that in reality) is just asking for more dead sheep.This is looking just like the Wedge pack, remember WDFW played around, then say they are going to kill so many wolves, they play around some more. Mean while the pro-wolfers spin themselves into a wailing mess, which only helps WDFW as they don't want to kill any wolves either. In the end WDFW will pretend to take out the entire pack. Mean while pro-wolfers rake in the money begging to save the wolves etc.. Wolves keep killing sheep, and WDFW's hands are tied because of the outcry from their supporters, DoW-CNW etc.. And the cluster starts all over again. WDFW's wolf management in a nut shell!
Quote from: wolfbait on August 26, 2014, 08:36:20 AMQuote from: KFhunter on August 25, 2014, 11:34:53 PMThis is curious to me, why WDFW would bother with 4 out of the 12, and not take all 12 out or not take any out. I understand there's probably 4 culprits that's responsible for the bulk of the killings, but really does anyone think there's a wolf made that can skip by a flock of sheep and not take a couple out then come back for 2nds, 3rds and so on?There can only be one outcome, the sheep removed or the wolves removed. Killing 4 wolves and leaving an estimated 8 left (probably double that in reality) is just asking for more dead sheep.This is looking just like the Wedge pack, remember WDFW played around, then say they are going to kill so many wolves, they play around some more. Mean while the pro-wolfers spin themselves into a wailing mess, which only helps WDFW as they don't want to kill any wolves either. In the end WDFW will pretend to take out the entire pack. Mean while pro-wolfers rake in the money begging to save the wolves etc.. Wolves keep killing sheep, and WDFW's hands are tied because of the outcry from their supporters, DoW-CNW etc.. And the cluster starts all over again. WDFW's wolf management in a nut shell!WDFW needs to do it's business on the down low They also need to not splash the name of the rancher all over the friggn news exposing them to death threats phone calls and online bullying. That they choose to do these things leads one to believe perhaps they do want a funding drive for CNW and their ilk.
