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Cattle-Killing Wolves in NM & AZ, Dog Killers in Idaho

I think that picture should stay put-there are alot of people that still make their living trapping up here-I don't think a picture of a skinny wolf in a leghold trap would help their cause any. In fact I really don't think that picture would do much to help the wolf haters cause to be honest with you. If you want the wolf numbers controlled why not approach Fish and Wildlife that reintroduction has been such a success that the wolf can be taken off the protected list and made into a game animal-charge hunters to come hunt them on your ranches. It's naieve to think hysterical rhetoric on the internet is going to get the government to come out and exterminate something they've spent so much money to introduce. As I understand there is compensation there for wolf kills we don't even get that here. If wolf introduction was a lemoon life dealt you make lemonade with it not whine-it will get you a heck of alot furthur.
 
For the record NR, we are not hysterical kill'em all types here either. I don't worry for myself out in the bush, but I do worry about my dogs when they are working out away from me; they are good dogs that would be expensive to replace. I also worry for the cattle, as we have had lots of wolf kills in this area of yearlings, cows and calves, and those are the ones we find. How many of the unaccounted for cattle are wolf kills is anyone's guess. Slow elk are much easier prey than the Queen's beef. F&W trim on the wolves a bit but don't like to take out the collared ones as it would mess up their studies and tracking, so they take a different one, and the cycle continues. Front page news is never a good thing when it comes to wolf control, as the quieter things are kept the easier for F&W to do their jobs. Ten thousand wolf lovers have a much stronger voice than a few ranchers. Until the wolves move in on urban areas, and kill the pets on the acreages, and they are starting to, nothing will be done. As soon as it starts affecting Joe Citydweller it will be a different story. What I resent most of all is the Disney image wolf lovers have managed to put in people's minds as the true wolf. They never see the walking dead yearlings with the holes under their tails that a basketball would fit in, or smelled the infected flesh that goes with it.
 
Yeah I agree that a chewed up yearling isn't pretty-what I'm getting at is the government isn't going to wipe them out-so you might as well work out a compensation deal and a ways of controlling them-getting your dogs poisoned by some idiot poisoning up something is just as bad as getting them ate by wolves.
 
We live with the wolves here, as always, but have to agitate to keep some control on them. I don't bother anything that doesn't bother me, and we have lots of black bear, grizzly and cougar around that don't bother us and some that do. What I find really ironic was the US importing wolves from us. We have plenty more here if they run out!
 
Finally, a little sanity from Washington. Sure upsets our "friends" at the Center for Biological Diversity though!

Center for Biological Diversity

Protecting endangered species and wild places through science, policy, education, and environmental law.

Bush Administration to Ramp Up Aerial Gunning and Introduce Wildlife Poisons in Designated Wilderness and Research Natural Areas

Move Signals Disturbing Shift in Management of Wildlife and Wilderness


The Bush administration proposed last week to relax restrictions on aerial gunning and poisoning of "problem" wildlife such as coyotes, foxes, mountain lions and wolves in designated Wilderness areas and Research Natural Areas on Forest Service land. Wilderness and Research Natural Areas are the two most protective land management classifications the Forest Service has, and both were formerly off-limits to predator control programs except in limited circumstances.

Wilderness areas are designated by Congress and are set aside as places where natural processes are free to take their course. The 1964 Wilderness Act describes Wilderness as "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain" [16 U.S.C. 1131(c)]. Wilderness areas are a popular destination for hikers and horseback riders who wish to see wildlife and remote natural areas. Currently, predator control actions are only permitted in designated Wilderness areas when they are needed to protect an endangered species or human life, and all control is done on a case-by-case basis with strict provisions designed to ensure that wilderness values are not impaired.

Research Natural Areas are small areas that, according to Forest Service policy, "may be used only for research, study, observation, monitoring, and those educational activities that maintain unmodified conditions" (Forest Service Manual 4063.03).

The changes the Forest Service announced last week would reverse the long-standing policies that protect wildlife in Wilderness areas and Research Natural Areas. The new rule would permit motorized and aerial trapping and killing of wildlife in both land designations. It would also make predator control an "objective" in Wilderness management, rather than reserving such activities for times when they are necessary to protect human life or endangered species. Worse, the new rule permits predator control when it is advised by a "collaborative process" that is undefined in the rule, but which presumably would entail meetings by livestock interests that are typically hostile both to Wilderness and to wolves, coyotes, cougars, bobcats, bears, lynx, foxes and other wildlife.

"This rule is a dramatic and devastating blow to our nation's wildlife and wilderness areas," said Erik Ryberg, Staff Attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. Piece by piece the Bush administration is stripping away every protection, every refuge, our wildlife formerly enjoyed. Few Americans consider a wilderness experience to include people in helicopters and on motorcycles tracking coyotes through the forest and killing them, but that is exactly what this rule authorizes."

Along with relaxing the conditions under which predator control may occur in Wilderness areas and Research Natural Areas, the rule would also permit the use of poisons such as M-44 cyanide guns, which are currently banned in Wilderness areas. Domestic dogs are often killed by M-44's, and the poisons are also a significant danger to children.

Furthermore, the proposal would exempt the Forest Service from conducting an environmental assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act of the impacts of predator control actions. Thus, members of the public would be less likely to know in advance which Wilderness areas they might spot helicopter gunmen shooting coyotes or witness the dying convulsions of their family dog.
June 12, 2006
Contact: Erik Ryberg, Staff Attorney, (520) 260-4157

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/press/wilderness_gunning_poisoning_06-12-2006.html
 

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