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Sky Hiker Member
Joined: 03 Feb 2007 Posts: 1469 | TRs | Pics Location: outside |
http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/jul1312c/
July 13, 2012
Contact: Steve Pozzanghera, WDFW, 509-892-7852
Kendle Allen, Stevens County Sheriff, 509-684-5296
Wolf, cougar attacks on rancher’s livestock prompt
response by WDFW, sheriff’s office in Stevens County
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and the Stevens County Sheriff’s office jointly responded this week to wolf and cougar attacks on a rancher’s livestock in northern Stevens County.
The owner of the Diamond M Ranch contacted the Stevens County Sheriff’s office July 11 after discovering an injured calf and cow on his ranch in Laurier, just east of the Kettle River near the Canadian border. The following day, he found two more calves that had been dead for several days.
After receiving the rancher’s initial report, Stevens County Sheriff Kendle Allen and Chief Deputy Colin Webb contacted WDFW enforcement officers, who joined them on the ranch to investigate the cause of the livestock injuries. WDFW officers and wildlife biologists, in collaboration with the Stevens County Sheriff, confirmed that injuries to the first two animals were caused by a wolf.
After the second report, investigators returned to the ranch and confirmed – based on distinctive marks left on the carcasses – that one calf was killed by a cougar and the other was killed by a wolf. Another calf remains missing from the rancher’s herd.
WDFW Director Phil Anderson has issued a permit to the rancher authorizing him to shoot a wolf if it is caught attacking his livestock again. The department is also working to determine the amount of compensation the rancher is eligible to recover for his losses.
“The permit is critical for the rancher to protect his livestock from further attack,” said Steve Pozzanghera, director of WDFW’s eastern region office in Spokane. “We’ve also offered to help him protect his animals using other measures.”
Pozzanghera explained that WDFW staff are monitoring the area and are prepared to use rubber bullets, floodlights and other strategies to keep wolves away from the rancher’s livestock. A department biologist is also setting up traps to capture and radio-collar a wolf. Radio collars can be used not only to track an animal’s movements, but also trigger alarms near livestock.
The Diamond M Ranch was also the scene a wolf-livestock depredation in 2007 – the first documented in Washington state in recent times . A wolf pack has long been suspected to range through the area known as The Wedge, a triangular section of northern Stevens County between the Kettle and Columbia rivers.
WDFW staff have had ongoing discussions with ranchers about livestock lost in the wedge, and have set up remote cameras in the area to detect wolf activity and confirm the pack’s existence.
“With the attacks at the Diamond M Ranch this week, the wedge area is now WDFW’s top wolf-trapping priority,” Pozzanghera said. He also expressed appreciation for the Stevens County Sheriff’s office cooperation in this week’s investigation.
“Staff from the sheriff’s office attended the wolf-depredation training course we held for our staff last spring,” he said. “I think this kind of joint effort is needed to successfully address problems with wolves and other wild predators.”
Pozzanghera urges ranchers who believe they have lost livestock to predation by any kind of wild animal to contact WDFW immediately at 1-877-933-9847.
“The sooner we can investigate the situation, the better our chances are of determining why the animal died, if a wolf was the predator and if compensation is warranted,” he said. “We also ask that landowners protect the site from disturbances and keep scavengers away by covering the carcass with a tarp.”
The wolf attack on the Diamond M Ranch livestock is the third incident investigated in Washington since the state adopted a Wolf Conservation and Management Plan in December 2011. The other two wolf attacks – in Okanogan and southern Stevens County – resulted in the loss of a calf and a sheep.
The plan (available at http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/gray_wolf/) addresses both recovery of the gray wolf, which is a state endangered species, and conflicts with livestock producers.
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RickS Member
Joined: 09 Nov 2011 Posts: 222 | TRs | Pics
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RickS
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Tue Jul 17, 2012 5:56 am
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Sky Hiker Member
Joined: 03 Feb 2007 Posts: 1469 | TRs | Pics Location: outside |
Rick you are stretching the truth!! Not one of the hunters called them heros on Hunt Wa. A few people that hunt and live in the Methow said they knew the family personally and considered them friends. Don't go making up things just to satisfy your personal agenda.
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RickS Member
Joined: 09 Nov 2011 Posts: 222 | TRs | Pics
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RickS
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Tue Jul 17, 2012 2:17 pm
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I'm not making anything up. I've seen it with my own 2 eyes. The hunters on hunting-washington advocate illegally killing wolves and eradication. Their hate for wolves/wildlife is obvious. the whites are poaching scum and should have received long prison sentences.
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Schenk Off Leash Man
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 Posts: 2372 | TRs | Pics Location: Traveling, with the bear, to the other side of the Mountain |
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Schenk
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Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:59 pm
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RickS wrote: | Some good news. |
Yup...Good news. Just a few more confirmed packs in Washington and their protection could be lifted here too. The number of confirmed packs has accelerated so they are more likely to become established in places that will cause conflict with Farmers, Ranchers, and rural residents (before you English majors jump me...Farmers and residents have livestock and domestic animals too)
Let's pretend Idaho didn't allow the hunting of wolves for a moment: What would you have suggested if a pack established itself in the North Idaho Selkirks and started predating on the last few Woodland Caribou in the United States???
Nature exists with a stark indifference to humans' situation.
Nature exists with a stark indifference to humans' situation.
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cartman Member
Joined: 20 Feb 2007 Posts: 2800 | TRs | Pics Location: Fremont |
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cartman
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Tue Jul 17, 2012 4:16 pm
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Schenk wrote: | Let's pretend Idaho didn't allow the hunting of wolves for a moment: What would you have suggested if a pack established itself in the North Idaho Selkirks and started predating on the last few Woodland Caribou in the United States??? |
Survival of the fittest. Nothing more.
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RickS Member
Joined: 09 Nov 2011 Posts: 222 | TRs | Pics
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RickS
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Tue Jul 17, 2012 4:30 pm
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15 breeding pairs for 3 years and I expect there will be lawsuits to protect the wolves. Why is everything with hunters/ranchers kill kill kill?
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Schenk Off Leash Man
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 Posts: 2372 | TRs | Pics Location: Traveling, with the bear, to the other side of the Mountain |
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Schenk
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Tue Jul 17, 2012 4:52 pm
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RickS wrote: | Why is everything with hunters/ranchers kill kill kill? |
It should be obvious to you that people who post fringe viewpoints and support illegal activity are the vast MINORITY in any group. Also, some of those would never carry out any act they claim to be in support of online. A little electronic veneer is all it takes for some folks to go off the deep end. Think about all the folks who have posted on this website what things they would do to a car prowler if they had the chance...I doubt few, if any, of them would actually carry our a murder because some scum ripped them off.
As a group Hunters, Farmers, and Ranchers are some of the most active and passionate Conservationists and Environmentalists representing the Human Race!
There are always a few anomalies that will give any group a bad name if you only look at their behavior and don't consider the group's behavior as a whole.
That said: I don't think humans are best equipped to manage the Earth and never have been. Nevertheless, we exist here on Earth and we are native too, "not planters" from some Human hatchery on an Alien Planet; so are you saying humans have no validity or rights as a species on this Earth?
Nature exists with a stark indifference to humans' situation.
Nature exists with a stark indifference to humans' situation.
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RickS Member
Joined: 09 Nov 2011 Posts: 222 | TRs | Pics
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RickS
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Tue Jul 17, 2012 7:22 pm
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MadCapLaughs Member
Joined: 05 Jul 2007 Posts: 954 | TRs | Pics
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Schenk wrote: | As a group Hunters, Farmers, and Ranchers are some of the most active and passionate Conservationists and Environmentalists representing the Human Race! |
You can't honestly believe this to be true. Hunters almost uniformly advocate for the eradication of native species. Hunters cannot advocate for the artificial inflation of their prey of choice at the expense of the other native residents and call that environmentalism. Sorry - that's selfishness, nothing more. And farming and ranching both necessitate the displacement of native species and the wholesale destruction of native ecosystems for the benefit of domestic monoculture - and for the benefit of their wallets. Again - self-interest and nothing more. Ranching and farming are two of the most ecologically devastating inventions humans have come up with.
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Sky Hiker Member
Joined: 03 Feb 2007 Posts: 1469 | TRs | Pics Location: outside |
Just where do you think go for the funding of wildlife, wolf reintroduction, etc comes from? You will find that the majority of hunters support wolves in Wa just not a over population as what happened in MT and Idaho. Unlike what you preach that all hunters want all predators totally anniliated. You would condone the erratication of the endangered species Woodland Caribou. 15 breeding pair which is more than MT and ID started out with and we have a much larger population. Just like those states its only a matter of time before they are out of control here.
Ranching and farming are two of the most ecologically devastating inventions humans have come up with. MadCapLaughs quote
But yet you survive because you cannot live with out ranching and farming. Might be time for you to crawl out from under that rock you live under.
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Klapton Member
Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 940 | TRs | Pics
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Klapton
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Wed Jul 18, 2012 5:53 am
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MadCapLaughs wrote: | Ranching and farming are two of the most ecologically devastating inventions humans have come up with. |
Yeah, that whole EATING thing really sucks. We should definitely stop immediately. (You first.)
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RickS Member
Joined: 09 Nov 2011 Posts: 222 | TRs | Pics
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RickS
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Wed Jul 18, 2012 7:09 am
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MadCapLaughs wrote: | Schenk wrote: | As a group Hunters, Farmers, and Ranchers are some of the most active and passionate Conservationists and Environmentalists representing the Human Race! |
You can't honestly believe this to be true. Hunters almost uniformly advocate for the eradication of native species. Hunters cannot advocate for the artificial inflation of their prey of choice at the expense of the other native residents and call that environmentalism. Sorry - that's selfishness, nothing more. And farming and ranching both necessitate the displacement of native species and the wholesale destruction of native ecosystems for the benefit of domestic monoculture - and for the benefit of their wallets. Again - self-interest and nothing more. Ranching and farming are two of the most ecologically devastating inventions humans have come up with. |
Very well said.
Hunters have been credited with being strong conservation advocates for numerous game species in multiple countries. Would initiating a wolf hunt invoke the same advocacy for the carnivores?
It's a pressing question as gray wolves were removed from the federal endangered species list in some western states this past May and are poised for delisting in 2012 in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and other areas of the Midwest. But newly released public opinion surveys conducted in Wisconsin and the northern Rockies suggest that wolves are in a class by themselves and that existing deer, elk, and other game hunts are poor models for a potential wolf hunt.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers Adrian Treves and Kerry Martin surveyed 2,320 residents of Wisconsin, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming — including both hunters and non-hunters — between 2001 and 2007. Their findings, appearing in the August issue of the peer-reviewed journal Society and Natural Resources, reveal hunter attitudes toward wolves that are largely inconsistent with stewardship.
A lot of hunters (not all) are anti-predator. Hunters are anti-conservation when it comes to predators. Just look at all of the comments made by hunters on numerous and various hunting forums. You'll see hunters making disgusting comments like the only good wolf or coyote is a dead one. Hunters ARE NOT conservation advocates for wildlife that they hate such as wolves, coyotes, etc. The conservation advocates for wolves, coyotes, etc are those who usually don't hunt.
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RickS Member
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RickS
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Wed Jul 18, 2012 7:14 am
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RickS Member
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RickS
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Wed Jul 18, 2012 7:20 am
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