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Wolf pack blamed for cattle killings in NM

Liberty Belle

Well-known member
Wolf pack blamed for cattle killings
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tucson, Arizona
Published: 06.19.2006


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A female endangered Mexican gray wolf will be permanently removed from the wild in southwestern New Mexico because she has been involved in the killing of at least five cows, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Monday.

The male and female that make up the Nantac Pack were placed in the wild April 25. The male was killed Sunday by the wolf recovery team under a permanent removal order, and efforts to either trap or kill the female continued Monday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began releasing wolves into the wild on the Arizona-New Mexico border in 1998 to re-establish the species in part of its historic range. The agency estimates 32 to 46 endangered Mexican wolves live in the wild in Arizona and New Mexico.

The agency said the animals are designated as a "nonessential, experimental population." That gives the recovery team greater flexibility to manage the wolves under the Endangered Species Act and allows permanent removal - by capturing or killing a wolf - after three confirmed livestock deaths.

Conservation groups sent a letter to the U.S. Interior Department on Monday, asking Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to issue an emergency moratorium on predator control directed against the endangered wolves until the goals of the reintroduction program are reached.

The groups said the population has declined from 55 in 2003 to 35 at the end of 2005.
"The Mexican wolf is the engine of evolution for southwestern ecosystems, contributing to the strength and vigor of elk, the alertness of deer, the agility and sense of balance of bighorn sheep and the speed and keen eyesight of pronghorn antelope," the groups said in their letter.

"In sum, reintroduction of the Mexican wolf is part of this generation's commitment to generations yet to come that we will leave them some landscapes teeming with life," the letter said.

Officials with the Fish and Wildlife Service did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment on the groups' request.

In early June, a wolf that officials said was involved in at least three livestock killings was shot and killed in the Gila National Forest.

In May, Fish and Wildlife officials said the alpha male of a pack that had been killing cattle on the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Arizona had been shot to death, and that eight other wolves captured from that pack had died - including six pups killed by a surrogate parent wolf.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/134329.php
 

Liberty Belle

Well-known member
Our "friends" from the Center for Biological Diversity are screaming "bloody murder" about the killing of these lethal predators. Some how I think they would scream just as loudly if it were children the wolves had killed instead of livestock. Pretty twisted bunch, don't you think?

Center for Biological Diversity: press release
New Interior Secretary Requested to Halt Mexican Wolf Predator Control,
while Federal Gunners Wipe Out Nantac Pack


Conservation and animal protection groups called on newly appointed Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne to issue an emergency moratorium on predator control directed against Mexican gray wolves, until this population of the reintroduced endangered species stabilizes and reaches its demographic objective.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, within the Department of the Interior, has issued an order to kill the recently released Nantac Pack, which consists of two survivors of past predator control actions who were released into the Gila National Forest in New Mexico in late April 2006. In early May, this pair scavenged on a bull that had perished from disease, and the wolves later killed three cows. The male wolf has already been killed, and the female will likely be shot from the air very soon.

“We’re saddened at his unnecessary death,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the 22 signatories of the letter to Kempthorne. “Only an immediate moratorium issued by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne can save the Nantac female.”

Robinson added: “If the Fish and Wildlife Service had followed scientists’ recommendations to keep wolves from scavenging on carcasses of cows and horses that they did not kill, the Nantac Pack would still be roaming the hills of the Gila together today.”

Mexican wolves were reintroduced in 1998 to the Gila and Apache National Forests in, respectively, southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona, with the goal of reaching at least 100 animals by the end of this year. It is believed there are presently fewer than 40 wolves in the wild plus an unknown number of pups born this year, and the population is declining.

The federal predator control program wiped out wolves originally and since their reintroduction has significantly contributed to the reduction of the census population of Mexican wolves in the wild from 55 at the end of 2003, to 44 at the end of 2004, to 35 at the end of 2005 – a 20% decrease in each year.

Within the last month, federal agents killed eleven wolves, including six pups from one pack. A seventh pup was orphaned and has likely died of starvation as a result of losing its parents.

June 19, 2006
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/press/wolf-gunners-06-19-2006.html
 

Ranchy

Well-known member
Those environmental freaks are nuts, I tell ya'll! The whole bunch is certifiable. :nod: I still think we oughtta take a pack and turn loose in Central Park, Chicago or LA.........give them a taste of what we're having to live with for a change. Bet they wouldn't be so gung-ho about the wolves then......... :roll: :twisted: :twisted:

:cboy:
 

nr

Well-known member
"The Mexican wolf is the engine of evolution for southwestern ecosystems, contributing to the strength and vigor of elk, the alertness of deer, the agility and sense of balance of bighorn sheep and the speed and keen eyesight of pronghorn antelope," the groups said in their letter."

Sounds like all New Mexico residents better maintain their own
alertness, agility, balance and eyesight or they'll be wolfed down.
 

Ranchy

Well-known member
Sounds like all New Mexico residents better maintain their own
alertness, agility, balance and eyesight or they'll be wolfed down.

I have a feeling it won't be long, before some kid will get got by them. I've heard that there have been stalkings...........and I do know they aren't afraid of people no way, no how. Comes from being raised and fed by humans all their lives, I guess. They've turned into monsters with no fear.......how do you fight something like that, and still allow it to live and roam free?

The whole thing is just nuts. :evil:

The Wildlands Project strikes again! :evil:
 

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