New Mexico county wants to remove wolf from ranch

[Liberty Belle]

This just makes me furious!! I can only imagine how you ranchers in New Mexico feel.

Another display of arrogance by the USFW. Unless there is something in our US Constitution that I missed, the feds have no right to tell the states what they can or cannot do to protect their citizens.

They forget that they are employees of the taxpayers and unless we rise up and remind them of that fact, they are going to keep abusing their power while trampling on our rights.

New Mexico county wants to remove wolf from ranch

ALBUQUERQUE -- Catron County has put the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on notice that it intends to trap and remove a Mexican gray wolf it says has been stalking a southwestern New Mexico ranch.

The wolf _ designated AF924 for alpha female 924 _ was released in the county April 25. The next day, county officials demanded it be removed as an "imminent danger." Fish and Wildlife rejected the demand.

Catron County officials said Monday that the wolf has been seen around Mike and Debbie Miller's ranch since her release and that they twice asked Fish and Wildlife to remove the animal. On Thursday, the county issued a "24-hour notice of intent" to trap the wolf and turn her over to Fish and Wildlife.

"We'd like to trap her and give her back," County Manager Bill Aymar said by telephone from his office in Reserve.

Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Charna Lefton said the agency received the county's notice Friday.

But, she said, it has no reason to remove the wolf under the rules of the 1998 program to reintroduce endangered Mexican gray wolves into the Southwest. The rules call for Fish and Wildlife to remove any wolf linked to three livestock killings within a year.

AF924 killed two cows before being released in Catron County. Aymar said the county wants her moved before she kills a third _ subjecting her to the program's own three strikes rule.

Debbie Miller said wolves show up near the ranch house and barn as well as a calving area five miles away. Two hung around the barn for four hours Sunday, she said.

County wolf interaction investigator Jess Carey has been stationed at the Millers' ranch since Friday.

"Jess and the county, they're the only ones who are trying to help," Debbie Miller said.

Carey _ using night vision goggles _ said he watched a wolf nip a calf at the Millers' calving operation about midnight Sunday. He said the wolf followed the calf and its mother as the cow pushed the calf toward other cows for protection. When the wolf left, Carey spent much of the rest of the night tracking it to within a mile of the ranch, he said.

"This problem isn't going to go away," Carey said. "If it takes myself and the commission to go to jail to bring something about, then that's what going to happen."

An ordinance passed by Catron County in February claims the right to remove wolves that are accustomed to humans or have a high probability of harming children or defenseless people, physically or psychologically. The county said in April it would use that ordinance against AF924.

Fish and Wildlife told county officials that the Endangered Species Act supersedes county ordinances and that any unauthorized action against the wolf would mean federal prosecution.

The county's notice said federal agencies did not respond to its demand for the wolf's removal or take action "to reduce the risk to humans from AF924." Fish and Wildlife's only response, the county said, was to send law enforcement officers to watch Carey.

Lefton said the officers were sent to make sure the wolf is not injured and that there's no violation of federal law.

AF924 has had pups since her release. If she's trapped and removed _ regardless who does that _ Fish and Wildlife would have to try to find the pups and remove them as well, Lefton said.

Catron County also said a psychiatrist diagnosed the Millers' 13-year-old daughter with post traumatic stress disorder caused by wolves, but said treatment would be useless if the wolves remain.

Lefton said Fish and Wildlife has no reason to believe AF924 is a threat to the public.

"We understand the family is upset, but there's no data or precedent to think these animals are a threat to the public safety," she said.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press
http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=6707646

[NMRANCHER]

Wish we could trap and relocate many federal employees.

[azcowpuncher]

Yeah them forest folks and fish and game alot of them people need to go bye bye , they did the same thing in eastern AZ with those damn mexican wolf and a bunch of them got shot and they couldnt prove who did it . Tree huggers ought to have to eat the rotten meat these mecixan grey wolves leave behind from a kill . They were pickiting outside of ranchers houses and on forest land about them damn things and they were never here to begin with . Just like that damned spoted owl you never hear no more about them bastards cause there never was such a thing that i everseen anyway .

[Ranchy]

Thank you for sharing that article with the rest of the group, Liberty. It's so good to know that there are other good folks out there, who are just as upset as we are, about the whole wolf fiasco.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the same female who has also bitten a person.........and yet, nothing is done about it, by those who have the "authority" to do something.

[Liberty Belle]

Maybe the feds are finally going to do something about this wolf… but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.

Catron County says disputed wolf has three strikes against it

RESERVE, N.M. -- Catron County officials said Monday a female Mexican gray wolf that they tried to prevent from being released in the county has killed a third cow, automatically requiring that she be removed from the wild.

Charna Lefton, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Albuquerque, said Monday the agency had just received a report on the cattle killing from Wildlife Services, a separate agency that investigates such reports.

She could not confirm that the investigation found the wolf killed the cow. She said an interagency field team will compare telemetry and other data and make a recommendation.

"But this does set the process in motion," she said.

County Commission Chairman Ed Wehrheim said the county's wolf incident investigator and citizens have closely monitored the wolf since her release about two months ago.

"As a result, we were able to see the developing behavior which, because of FWS ignoring our reports and removal demands, has resulted in this third strike," he said.

The county's wolf investigator, Jess Carey, has said it's a shame the federal agency would not remove the animal before the third livestock killing.

The wolf, designated AF924 for alpha female 924, two killed two cows before being released in Catron County on April 25. The next day, county officials demanded the wolf be removed before she had a chance to kill any more livestock.

Fish and Wildlife responded that it had no reason to remove her under the rules of the 1998 program to reintroduce endangered Mexican gray wolves into the Southwest. The rules call for the agency to remove any wolf linked to three livestock killings a year.

Late last month, the county issued a "24-hour notice of intent" to trap the wolf and turn her over to Fish and Wildlife.

A Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman said over the weekend that AF924 likely was involved in the latest deaths of a cow and calf, but that the agency had to await the report. The agency said alpha male AM973 also is believed to have been involved, which would be a first strike against that wolf.

AF924 has had pups since her release. If she's trapped and removed, Fish and Wildlife officials said, the team would have to try to find the pups and remove them as well.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=6739794

[Carter]

sounds like a 30-30, a shovel, and not telling anyone would solve this prob. When did it become against the law to protect yourself and your belongings?? they need to shoot this wolf and not worry about telling the tree huggers

[azcowpuncher]

Only bad thing about shooting them is they have collars on them and when they dont move for a few hours they track them down and find out they have been shot and they investigate them more than they do a murder on another person , its sad but its true you have never seen so many game wardens and law in your whole life till you see them lookin into one of these damn wolfs gettin shot . The game warden is the dumbest of animal of all then you have the forest service and then the BLM and then just like s*** it all rolls down hill from there . I once met a game warden on a ranch i was workin for and he had been opening gates on us and we had cattle scatterd everywere well we caught him and to make a long story short he denied it and introduced himself to us and i told him i was Claude Dallas JR and he liked to p*** all over himself and his hand never left his gun after that , then he tried to write me a tickett for my runnin iron and i told him he is not livestock enforcement so he didnt have the right and when i tore the tickett up he was mad but he couldnt do anything and he knew it ohh how that guy hated me after that ha ha .

[cowpony]

need to do the 3 s's to that wolf shoot shovel and shut up

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

I hadda do a search to find out who Claude Dallas Jr was........now the story has a "funny" twist to it hehe

I'm with the shoot shovel and shut up......then throw the collar over a high bridge into deep water method.

[azcowpuncher]

Yeah you say Claude Dallas around them game wardens and they get all shakey and white hahaha . Darrel Munson is another name you say to the forest service or BLM they get all nervous ha ha . They are a couple of men that stood up for what they belived in and wouldnt stand around and take this crap from these bage totin babys that call them selves forest service Blm or game wardens .

[rainie]

You's are talking one wolf. How would you like to have a frickin pack!!!!! We just lost two calves this weekend. Could be a long summer. Broken fences and pumped up cows. Worst thing is when Momma wolf starts training her pups.

[Liberty Belle]

This is a press release from a nutcase group of greenies that would like us to think that you ranchers down there are just letting your cows die because of neglect and that is causing the poor old wolves to learn how to eat beef. Bad ranchers. Bad, bad ranchers... This is all your fault!!!

The Center for Biological Diversity
For Immediate Release, July 2, 2007
Contact: Michael Robinson, (505) 534-0360

Dead and Dying Cattle Litter Gila Region, Drawing Mexican Wolves

SILVER CITY, N.M.— Dead and dying cattle are proliferating in the Beaverhead region of the Gila National Forest, where at least two wolf packs and a few lone wolves are living.

Mexican gray wolves almost certainly have been scavenging on cattle dying of non-wolf causes, keeping the wolves in an area where cattle are vulnerable. As a result, the Durango pack now stands accused of having killed a cow and will be trapped or shot.

Livestock die of disease, calving problems, and poisonous weeds among other causes. Their carcasses in this severely grazed area of mixed public and private land have attracted numerous Mexican gray wolves in years past, helping habituate the wolves to cattle and thus begin preying on them. When the wolves threaten cattle, they are removed by federal agents.

The dying cattle have not only led to the downfall of the Durango packs but also put at risk the nearby Aspen pack.

“This portion of the Gila National Forest is perennially overgrazed, leading to conditions that make it hard to keep cattle alive,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “The wolves pay the price.”

The normally anonymous area of the Gila has drawn increasing attention this spring, and an unusual level of human activity due to attempts by a contractor for the anti-conservation Catron County government to trap a wolf from the Durango pack. Federal agents have been on the scene to protect the wolves from this illegal trapping, and Center for Biological Diversity volunteers have also been present to monitor the region.

The 2001 Three-Year Review of the Mexican wolf reintroduction program, also known as the Paquet Report, recommended a rule change to require livestock owners on public lands to clean up the carcasses of their non-wolf-killed cattle and horses to keep wolves from scavenging on them and beginning to kill stock.

The northern Rocky Mountains gray wolf reintroduction program for Wyoming, Idaho and Montana requires disposal of livestock carcasses, but the Fish and Wildlife Service has refused to include such protections for Mexican wolves.

The Mexican wolf was reintroduced to the Gila and Apache National Forests in 1998, after first having been exterminated from the wild by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The population was projected to reach 102 animals including 18 breeding pairs at the end of 2006, but actual numbers today are approximately 55 mature wolves, plus pups born this year, in five or fewer breeding pairs.

To see the carcasses scattered throughout the landscape via a tour of the region, which lies approximately 3.5 hours from Albuquerque and four hours from Silver City, contact Michael Robinson.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a nonprofit conservation organization with more than 35,000 members, founded in 1989 in an inholding in the Gila National Forest of rural southwestern New Mexico.

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/PRESS/gila-cattle-07-02-2007.html