The Oregonian By Richard Cockle, The Oregonian
August 30, 2013
Two wolf attacks on cattle in Wallowa County could trigger a wolf “kill order” by Oregon wildlife officials for the first time in more than two years.
Earlier this month, wolves from the Imnaha pack injured a rancher’s cow on Upper Griffith Creek.
Last week, a horseback rider checking cattlefound the partially eaten carcass of a calf killed by a wolf along Upper Threebuck Creek.A radio-collar check showed OR-4, an Imnaha pack wolf, was in the area where the calf was discovered.
Meanwhile, the Umatilla River wolf pack northeast of Pendleton killed a goat that had been penned overnight close to the owner’s house with guard dogs nearby, said Michelle Dennehy, spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The Wallowa County attacks raised the tally of livestock deaths by the Imnaha pack to four within the past six months, enough for state wildlife biologists to begin considering “lethal controls,” Dennehy said.
Killing one or more wolves could be ordered under terms of a settlement last spring, but no decisions have been made, Dennehy said.
“I haven’t heard any discussion yet of what animals we might target, or how many,” she said.
The agreement grew out of 17 months of negotiations involving Gov. John Kitzhaber, the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and two major conservation groups after the Oregon Court of Appeals halted the killing of Oregon wolves by government hunters.
Oregon currently is home to at least 46 wolves in seven known packs — the Imnaha, Minam, Mount Emily, Snake River, Umatilla River, Walla Walla and Wenaha packs.
For the state to authorize killing a problem wolf, the affected rancher must have used at least one preventive measure to keep wolves away from livestock at least seven days before the incident.
Those can include flaggery, or strips of fabric tied to fences to frighten away wolves; burial of bone piles when cattle die naturally; guard dogs; and an increase in the presence of humans where cattle graze and wolves are known to range.
Nick Cady, spokesman for the Cascadia Wildlands environmental group, said lethal controls under the settlement are a “last resort” to deal with wolves and can occur only when livestock kills become chronic. His group helped negotiate the agreement.
If a wolf or wolves must be killed, it should be a “targeted removal” of specific animals preying on livestock, he said. Nevertheless, Cady doesn’t believe lethal controls are the best option.
Since Washington wiped out the cattle-killing Wedge pack of wolves north of Kettle Falls near the Canadian border last year, new wolves have moved in, and “they’ve been depredating again,” Cady noted.
Wolves were active this summer in northeastern Oregon. An injured calf was found July 2 in Wallowa County’s Upper Threebuck Creek drainage and was listed as a probable wolf attack, state biologists said. Calves were attacked by wolves in the same area April 22, May 10 and May 15, they said.
A calf carcass found in the Hayden Lake area of Wallowa County also suggests a possible wolf attack, they said. They also confirmed the death of a ewe sheep in the Weston Mountain area northeast of Pendleton around June 3 as a wolf kill.
Exposing the Big Game 
we’re killing wolves who need to eat other animals because they eat the animals we don’t need to eat – it’s all becoming clear now 🙂
…and eating animals is killing us.
yes, and eating animals is killing us.
Amen!! These DEPLORABLE ranchers say “They are feeding the World” well that is a load of CRAP! they DO NOT FEED ME! I am just sick to death of them trying to justify MURDER! Our Wolves are vital to the ecosystem and are essential! We cannot live without our wildlife, but we can however, live with less SAVAGE HUMANS! They, the humans, with the exception of the “Good Ones” who love and protect our Wolves, are the ones KILLING our earth and destroying the environment!
Ranchers must be pro active and I really don’t see that as a true statement, it’s there responsibility at ask times to keep there herd in tact we all know that plain and simple…We are not stupid to the fact on how the ranchers do take advantage of the subsidy they recieve and ways around of milking the tax payers..you shoot a collared wolf is like entrapment..unless you have complete knowledge that this Wolfe killed anything without an on site seeing first hand is deplorable.
.2% of predation are wolves. Double that for domestic dogs and triple for coyotes. I smell a rat here and it has two legs.
Yes, and that’s an insult to 4-legged rats.
This is just CRAP! Ranchers, should not “Free Graze” their cattle on PUBLIC LAND in the first place, well…..If you call paying the Federal Government $1.35 per cow to graze “Free Graze”, but this is just an INVASION on the Wolves and other predators HOMES! In which they have a right to LIVE! If you, graze your cattle on land that they live on and kill off all their pray, the poor Wolves have nothing left to eat!!!!! STOP the dang GREED and learn to live together the way the Native Americans did!!!!! And they are whining about 1 small calf?????? Give me a frekin break!!! Ranchers and Kill Happy hunters have over hunted the wolves and their pray so the pack is not strong enough to take down bigger and stronger prey! Loosing their cows is the ranchers fault not the Wolves!! And I agree, with the “Two Legged RAT” thing, even 4 legged Rats have more standards and values than these “SAVAGE” two legged ones!
I find it astounding that in a state where less than 46 wolves reside they can be killed for eating a goat and some common cattle. These agreements that allow for killing endangered species to protect cattle that will be killed by the rancher at some point do not make sense to me.
Nope, and then there’s the fact that livestock/cattle have been bred to suppress their natural instincts and often have their horns cut off, leaving them practically defenseless.