Looks like they are finally doing it. Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are De-listing the gray wolf and are going to sell tags to hunt the animal. I posted about this a few months ago, and I’m posting about it now to say how much I deplore this tack in de-listing then hunting of a national treasure. Yes, I consider wolves a national treasure. They do not kill off hundreds of cattle, or sheep or livestock, they are not the ruthless animals portrayed in literature and media. To me hunting for any variety of K9 is absurd. You certainly are not going to eat it, I doubt you are going to mount a Wolf. So what are you going to do with a dead 130 pount wolf?
I’m not a hunter, so feel free to take what I say with a grain of salt.
I have seen and heard of people wanting wolf pelts for trophies. I can’t say I’ve seen any wolf heads on walls, but I don’t think that’s as far out of the range of possibility as you’re suggesting.
I’m also not as opposed to the idea of a wolf hunt as you are. I’ve done no research into this specific situation, and would have to be convinced that a wolf hunt to control population is a good idea. But I don’t view it as a travesty, nor something that, by defintion, is insupportable.
One problem with returning wolves, and with maintaining other large predators, in areas that mix livestock and wild game seems to be that in effect the livestock becomes a famine food for the predators, imbalancing the normal predator-prey relations, where predator populations follow closely with prey populations. ISTR reading the claim that where predator populations were allowed to get too large, in poor years they would hunt game species to near extinction (on a local level, that is) and then transfer their attentions to livestock, or domestic animals.
So, while I’m not eager to see a wolf hunt going down, I’m not absolutely opposed to it, either. Prima facie, the numbers they’re talking about seem like they would leave a maintainable stock in the area.
Is this a whoosh? Do you think wolves survive on flowers and bunny poop?
TOTAL PAYMENTS FROM 1987 TO FEBRUARY 2008 $1,047,738
TOTAL NUMBER OF PAYMENTS 738
TOTAL NUMBER OF DEPREDATION INCIDENTS:
CATTLE 1,084
SHEEP 2,079
OTHER* 84
I have no problems with shooting a feral dog, and I don’t care whether or not it’s a golden retriever. They are a hazard to deer, livestock and public safety.
I worked hard for years to help get the wolf re-established here in Idaho. They’ve far exceeded everyones fondest hopes and wildest dreams. It’s time to delist them, they are no longer endangered or rare.
I can hear one howling now.
Currently there are four known packs in my relatively small county (the most northern one). Truthfully, there are probably more than that and that’s not counting the singles.
They haven’t become a serious problem yet, but like anything at the top of the food chain, can overpopulate without some manner of control. Personally, I’d rather see them hunted than poisoned and trapped.
As much as I like them around, if they were taking down my cattle I’d kill them in an instant.
How much are you willing to personally pay to compensate ranchers to keep wolf populations high? It’s easy to admire the “national treasures” from Connecticut, not so much when the national treasures eat your property.