This is where I hunt little East of Idaho last weekend, PLENTLY PLENTLY Wolves like I wrote a story below my Bear hunting thread. Its really sad to see wolves growing faster every year!
Link.
http://www.kxly.com/news/23588359/detail.html Coeur d'Alene hunter says his hound dog was killed by a pack of wolves while hunting last weekend, and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game says these death appear to be a growing trend.
The attack happened on Saturday in Shoshone County south of I-90 near Canary Creek.
Jeff Cleveland says his dog, Jake, was a born hunter and the hound was excited to go on the bear hunting trip Saturday.
KXLY.com Video
EmbedSharePurchaseDog killed by wolf in north Idaho, could be growing trend
May 18, 2010
A Coeur d'Alene hunter says his hound dog was killed by a pack of wolves while hunting last weekend, and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game says these death appear to be a growing trend. KXLY4's Sally Showman reports.
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"He was wound up from 3:30 in the morning if he knew he was going hunting," said Cleveland.
Late in the afternoon, Jake went from being the hunter to being the hunted.
"He had a hole all the way through his back and half his rib cage tore out by the wolves," says Cleveland.
Cleveland says Jake and several other hounds went after a bear they saw crossing a road.
Three hours after Jake took off after the bear, Cleveland got concerned, as he had not seen or heard from his dog since the initial bear sighting.
His hunting group split up looking for Jake, and Cleveland's friend eventually found him, dead.
"He was laying down under and tree. He was just torn up, it was bad," recalls Cleveland's hunting buddy, Steve Johnson. "I got on the radio and said, 'the wolves got Jake,' As soon as I got off the radio wolves started howling around me."
Johnson says he saw two wolves near Jake's body and had to shoot his gun to scare them away.
"I fired two shots to get them to go away and it didn't phase them, they kept coming around me," said Johnson.
He says two wolves followed him as he carried Jake back to Cleveland.
According to Idaho Fish and Game, 61 dogs have been killed by wolves in Idaho since 2003. The number of dogs killed by wolves has increased almost every year. In 2003 three dogs were killed by wolves in Idaho and in 2009, 14 were killed.
"I don't know if I'm going to keep hound hunting. You wanna turn dogs out that you put a lot of time and money into just to have them ate?" asked Cleveland.
Cleveland says he could spend $5,000 to buy another hound, but he'll never find another Jake.
"To have that drive to hunt, you can't replace that," Cleveland said.
Idaho Fish and Game released this statement about the incident with Jake:
"Understandably, the loss of a hunting hound or any other animal companion is very, very upsetting. We recognize that our sympathy does not offer much condolence. Other than for some livestock, the state does not have a program to compensate the public for animals killed or injured by wildlife."
Mulehunter
