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Wolves are at our door

I was just reading in the Agri-News-- that where the Feds are delisting the wolves from the endangered species listing- they figure the actual status on them might not change for years-- as they figure the greenie weenies and bunny huggers will be able to tie it up in court for the next 10 years... :(
 
Sandhusker said:
People seem to think that reintroducing animals back into the geographical area where they once lived is "getting back to nature" and a restoration of sorts. The thing is, we're never going to get "back to nature". As long as there are towns, farms, roads, white men, etc.... that nature that once existed will never come back. Throwing a wolf or a bear back into lands that have been "tamed" isn't going to restore a dang thing.

If they want to reintroduce native species to former territory, I'm pretty sure Wolves and Bears once roamed freely in New Jersey.....
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This is a good point. Elk were reintroduced to eastern Ky several years ago. Depending on your view point they have either done wonderfully or terrible. There are gobs of them. We have the largest herd east of the Mississippi River. We now have a limited hunting season for them. It's like shooting your neighbors milk cow. Most all the ones alive now were born here. Over 11 months of the year they have people riding around looking at them and taking pictures so they have no fear at all of humans. During the hunting season if you are lucky enough to be drawn to get a tag you just find the one you have been watching all year, walk up close enough so that you could hit it with your eyes closed and bang. Also the deer hunters in that part of the state say that the elk are ruining the deer hunting. Maybe we need to reintroduce wolves here to reduce the elk herd and also maybe put some fear into them. They aren't afraid of coyotes from what I hear.
 
NR I'm glad the wolves don't kill your cattle, but they do kill cattle here, and lots of them. Fish and Game confirm each kill, and now realize that they have a major problem, thanks to the population explosion in the wolves here due to a ready food source, and it isn't deer or elk! There were something like 32 confirmed kills in this area, and one of them was only a kilometer from a town, a couple others were darn sure no where near the bush, but rather out of the flats east of the Oldman River. Once a pack starts killing cattle they don't suddenly switch back to deer or elk. If I could catch all these packs, I'd happily pay shipping costs to your area so you could rehabilitate them and live in peace with them!! :wink:
 
I'm sure all can agree that wildlife sanctuary is a laudable byproduct of good ranching, but some wildlife like wolves puts a disproportionate share of the Nation's species preservation efforts on a small minority (ranchers).

Soapweed shows a keen understanding/familiarty of the evolution of the cattle industry, and I'm compelled to agree with his opposition to wolf reintroduction.

Sandhusker, New Jersey really has a bear season - no punch line, NJ has a bear season, and would be overrun without bear hunting.

I faintly recount a true story: A bunch of eastern environmental activists were picketing the expansion of one of the Colorado ski areas on the basis of point source water pollution. When asked about the water quality of their home state (NY) they said "clean rivers are for the west." For far too long the west has been disproportionately burdened with the common good of environmental preservation. Wolves would make good sport of feasting on the homeless in Chicago; what fundamental distinction justifies reintroduction in South Dakota and not Chicago?
 
Mountain lions are being seen more and more in this area. East of Gordon around 15 miles and 10 miles or so south they spotted one during harvest coming out of the cornfields and then another person saw it on an old pivot.

About two years ago one crossed the road coming into this place right in front of a car and then it was seen the next day around 11 miles south. We have awesome trees for wind protection along the calving lot and I'm a wuss it spooked me out to ride along the trees for awhile after that and no amount of putting up with crabby men could get me to go out there at night after that. Now it's been long enough I guess we've just kinda "forgot" about it.

A family that lived around 2o miles west of us swore on the ranch they worked on for over 20 years they'd seen a pair of wolves. I'm not sure if anyone else ever saw them.
 
Apparently some of the Fish and Game are starting to wake up to what many have been telling them for years-- that the wolves and mountain lions are here- and always have been ...

The Fish and Game called me the other day with their annual deer harvest survey--finding out how many days you hunted- and how many and what you harvested for deer, antelope, and elk...A new question they asked this year was whether while hunting you saw any wolves or mountain lions....

I think before- back when they were trying to get/keep wolves on the endangered species list- they didn't want to recognize the fact that they've been here forever- and around here come and go down out of Canada....
 
Last fall I saw a wolf trotting through my cattle. I'm off of an interstate highway, and a few people reported the sighting.

Since the public reported the sighting, a federal trapper came out to confirm, and he documented a paw print, and found hair in the fence where the wolf went through.

The hair was DNA'd, and it did come back as a wolf, not a hybrid. I never heard which pack it may have come out of.

I hope Wyoming holds strong to listing wolves as a predator in my part of the state (SE corner), but it isn't right to throw other ranchers "under the bus" in the other parts where they wouldn't have that classification.

People should be able to protect their property from harm regardless of what is threatening it.

I hope like NR, we don't have any problems, but with my domesticated, polled cows which haven't been exposed to predators, this causes some concern :(

My friend to the north is a rodeo stockcontractor, and maybe I should consider pasturing a few of his nasty cows to help teach my cows "Self-Defense 101" :)
 
I was once losing calves to wolves and other predators until I found a simple solution. I bought an entire semi load of Vigortone Mineral and sprinkled a trail of it all around the perimeter of my property, wolves or other varmits WILL NOT cross a Vigortone boundary.
 
Work Hard and Study Hard said:
I was once losing calves to wolves and other predators until I found a simple solution. I bought an entire semi load of Vigortone Mineral and sprinkled a trail of it all around the perimeter of my property, wolves or other varmits WILL NOT cross a Vigortone boundary.
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Nahhhh,it wasn't the Vigoratone,it was the smell from the miserable SOB that sprinkled it there :!: :!: :!:
 
Mrs.Greg said:
Work Hard and Study Hard said:
I was once losing calves to wolves and other predators until I found a simple solution. I bought an entire semi load of Vigortone Mineral and sprinkled a trail of it all around the perimeter of my property, wolves or other varmits WILL NOT cross a Vigortone boundary.
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Nahhhh,it wasn't the Vigoratone,it was the smell from the miserable SOB that sprinkled it there :!: :!: :!:
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Havin a rough time with menopause EH!
 
What's Vigortone and where can it be sourced? Mrs. Greg, is it just any particular SOB who is needed to sprinkle it or one in particular?
 
per said:
What's Vigortone and where can it be sourced? Mrs. Greg, is it just any particular SOB who is needed to sprinkle it or one in particular?
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Check out ranchtalk,I brought the Vigoratone thread up for you
 
NR, I'm surprised you seem to get away so lucky with the wolves.... perhaps your wolves are a more timid breed :wink:

We have lost more cattle to wolves over the years than I care to think about, and I wouldn't wish them on anyone. There are ranchers in these parts that lose 10-15 animals per year when things get bad. The dead ones I don't even mind so much as the ones with their bags ripped off, or trailing their intestines, tails eaten off, on and on it goes. If I lived somewhere that didn't have wolves and some SOB moved them in, I'd be hot as hell. Being as I live in an area that's allways had alot of wolves I don't say too much, but they do scare me because they can have such a direct and visible impact on my pocket book. I do what I can to keep their numbers down and protect my investments, but really there's not much you can do.
Sure makes my skin prickle and makes me feel awfull defenceless when Im out checking cows at 3:00 am and I can hear the buggers moaning in the not so faraway, knowing we've got 150 baby calves out there we're depending on to make payments.....
 
Not saying there's not ever any losses but coyotes kill alot more calves than wolves or bears ever do. a torn up cow isn't pretty but that's the price one pays for ranching in God's country. A pack of yotes camped on a calving ground can be tough -one thing wolves pass through only every week or so if they're around. The hyenas in Ottawa are a bigger danger to our way of life than the wolves in the muskkegs.
 
Guess there's one less now-ty's buddy that ranches at the other end of our muskkeg caught a big white wolf yesterday-he was living the life of riley eating deer amongst a few hundred Angus cows.
 
Between scours, pneumonia, ICE, bad weather, and other perils I have never understood the mass panic that wolves and coyotes evoke in cattlemen. I think soapy just thinks a wolf is akin to a black man and would like to eradicate both when neither has a bonafide impact on our bottom dollar.
 
Work Hard and Study Hard said:
Between scours, pneumonia, ICE, bad weather, and other perils I have never understood the mass panic that wolves and coyotes evoke in cattlemen. I think soapy just thinks a wolf is akin to a black man and would like to eradicate both when neither has a bonafide impact on our bottom dollar.
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You read me wrong, WHSH. I don't mind coyotes at all, even though if they start strolling too close to our calving area, I will put them out of my misery. Wolves are quite another matter. They WILL do both you and me much financial hardship if they ever get into the area. You can bank on it.

I have nothing against Obama because he is a black man. I have nothing against Hillary because she is a white woman. I have nothing against John McCain because he is a white man. My gripe with all three of them (and yes I know McCain is a Republican) is that they are all Liberals. As I say, if Condoleezza Rice ran against the other three, I would vote for her. She might be just as liberal as the other three, but at least she has youth on her side and she is not that hard to look at. Race, creed, color, or gender has nothing to do with my likes or dislikes. A person's actions do. I would much rather my daughter had married a good Christian black man instead of the white guy that completely stole her from us.
 
Northern Rancher said:
Well we've ranched for 90 years with wolves at our door and were still surviving. in fact last week I saw a good bull moose and a good sized wolf about a half mile apart. Why don't some of you hop in your trucks and come up and see how it's done. Not saying they never kill stock but they sure as heck have never put anybody out of business up here and trust me we have wolves and bears and coyotes even the odd big cat. I've never heard more unadulterated hearsay and B.S as i read in some of these posts. Ninety Nine percent of you will never see a wolf or a wolf kill in your lifetimebut everybody has a third cousin whose grampa had his nephew eaten by a pack back in the old days.i don't necessarily love them but I can sure get along with ranching with them around us. Coyotes cause a heck of alot more losses in the U'S and Canada for sure.
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8) Well said -Too true?They are scarey,but if I remember right yu have to build a brick house?Or the will blow it down
 

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