The problem with the wolf debate is most of the information available is biased and nonfactual. In Oregon, very few know that the native wolf to Eastern Oregon was a small wolf slightly bigger than a coyote with full-grown males weighing 80 lbs. They were more brown than gray and rather scrawny looking. They fed on smaller wildlife, were very shy, seldom seen, and supposedly extinct by the early 1900s when larger wolves more related to the Great Plains wolf (not the Canadian gray) came in and took their food sources and these newcomer wolves supposedly went extinct by 1926. It was possibly a hybrid wolf, a native and Great Plains mix took over and were finally extinct by 1940 or so due to ranchers killing them. even though these were grayer in color, they were still not the same as the Canadian larger gray.
The few surviving of the original smaller native wolf in remote places unknown to wildlife management and most ranchers, disappeared in the 1970s due to the game being depleted from gross Forest mismanagement and forcing the wolves to go lower and kill small livestock which led to their death by flying lead. It was contended by the game specialist and some ranchers that these were coyote and domestic dog hybrid, not wolves since they didn't match the size and savage killing instincts of the larger gray wolf.
They killed to eat, never for sport as the re-introduced Canadian gray does once its belly is full of beef. For more info on wolves' joy killing, read the reports from the Jacob Ranch at Keating 2009 when these imported wolves weighing up to 170 lbs were killing sheep just for fun, and the rubber jaw trapped wolves were drooped off a few miles from the ranch fitted with a radio collar so the Jacobs would be alerted when they returned and could safely corral a band of sheep (yeah right) and /or watch while their sheep were run down and torn apart. They could not shoot at that time due to these imported wolves being on the endangered species list. With a lot of effort and expense to ranchers and taxpayers, that was changed and then the Oregon Wolf Plan was formed with little input from the ranchers being considered.
One kill is too many and imported wolves are not a natural thing and they should all be killed immediately. The people responsible for bringing them in should be working on prison farms pulling weeds. Importing invasive species (the gray wolf) does not fit in the life cycles that are now in play. We cannot live in a modern world and have the forest and rangeland like it was in the time of the American Indian. It is impossible.
The most important point that I always tried to get across is that any wolf advocate should be forced to watch as a well-fed imported Canadian gray wolf pack tears apart their pets, llamas, ponies, goats, colts, urban chickens, etc., and makes their children fear for their lives.
When I was 5 I was lucky to see a wolf-looking dog running at me and I was lucky to climb up a tree and my dad had his rife handy and shot it as it was leaping and snarling at me. The 30 caliber hollow point bullet made a sizable hole in the wolf with guts all over the place. It was a wolf German Sheperd hybrid according to the local game guy. If it had an owner they never came forward. That was back when the authorities would have charged them with endangering human life and a hefty fine as well as a felony charge would be administered.
Wolves serve NO GOOD purpose in Oregon today. If they continue to multiply, then we will see declining numbers of black bears and coyotes which are native species but no wildlife biologist will admit that the wolf is the main reason the bears and coyotes are forced out of their natural habitat now shy of game. I have no sympathy for bears, cougars, or coyotes that become killers of domestic livestock. When these killers go for the easy kill as is domestic livestock and fail to keep the rabbits, flea-ridden rock chucks, and crop-damaging red diggers in check, then time for all these predators to go extinct. You may think I am heartless but I won't kill a bullsnake, even though I HATE snakes, because of their gopher eating and natural crop control.