STEVENS COUNTY, Wash. — When a sharpshooter took out a member of a problem wolf pack last month, it looked like a small female, but it wasn’t just any female. A necropsy determined it was the breeding female of the Huckleberry Pack, Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDF&W) officials said today.
The Huckleberry Pack has been feeding on sheep being raised on private forest lands in northern Stevens County.
State decides to kill, not scare, wolves
The only wolf killed was the female shot from a helicopter by a federal contractor.
WDF&W was hoping to keep the breeding pair alive so that if the pack learned to leave the sheep alone, it could rebuild and return to hunting wild animals.
“Obviously, this is an unfortunate development and one we hoped to avoid,” said Nate Pamplin, WDF&W’s Assistant Wildlife Program Director. “We provided direction for individuals involved in aerial removals or trapping/euthanasia to try to remove smaller bodied animals.”
He added the alpha wolf weighed 66 pounds and was 3 years old. Pamplin said they couldn’t determine it was the alpha female from the air.
Biologists say losing the alpha female harms the survival of a wolf pack, but other females in the pack may fill that role.
Exposing the Big Game 
Such a disaster for all.
Thank you so much WDF&W officials for allowing the alpha female wolf to be slaughtered. If the shooter couldn’t tell from the air that she was the alpha female, why is aerial shooting allowed in the first place? This makes no sense at all.
Murderers.
Reblogged this on Howling For Justice and commented:
Disgusting barbarians!!
How come I never read or hear about the ranchers responsibility to keep livestock secure
I have indeed read that some of the livestock ranchers blame the wolves for their deaths even though the wolves did not cause the deaths
The ranchers get money from the Gov if wolves cause the death whereas if the livestock die from natural causes or causes other than wolves the ranchers receive no money
Man should let Nature take its course
Nature can live without Man
Actually Nature thrives without Man
Man cannot live without Nature
The problem is not wolves. It is the destructive Livestock Industry which has had the federal and state government-supported wildlife killing agencies working for them. This cruel, nature-killing industry will never change–it needs to be remove from all public lands, which will give native wild animals a chance to exist in peace. There should be no more compromise on this, if we are truly For The Wild Animals. http://www.foranimals.org
I strongly wish that those that accidentaly shot The alpha female wolf, Will be shot Also Accidentally by any Of The real Defenders Of wildlife. I really wish They all die.
I feel sick over this killing. And even worse, they are just taking the weekend off!! Don’t you think you have done enough traumatizing to the Huckleberry Pack? I bet they won’t be out trying to find a human to even the injustice done to them. Give it a break! You’ve just killed their Alpha Female, a young mamma to these pups. I hope there is another female or two to nurture these young pups. God!! Stop the killing?!!
Related problems involving public attitudes toward wolves:
A greater number of humans living near wolves are less tolerant than those who do not live near them. This, however, is a cultural thing. The Ojibwe and certain tribes originating in other wolf country (BEFORE the immigration pressures of white men forced many like Cree and others West into open wolf country) had great tolerance for wolves, recognizing them as relatives and teachers.
Also unfortunately, a majority of humans feel that “hunting” wolves is a valid way to control wolf-human conflicts. Because of the millions of “sport” pleasure killers around (many even teaching their daughters to kill as shown by a hunting magazine just behind me now), the wolf remains in serious danger of being tortured and murdered off again.
Here’s link to Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting, which site has some interesting points to make about hunters, corrupt government agencies (from police to “game” agencies and more. Check videos in the site), problematic laws which favor hunters over landowners etc.
http://www.all-creatures.org/cash/
You may have read Jay Mallonee’s studies concerning wolves and humans. Here’s one article, concerning Montana’s cruel management::
In it you’ll notice that 2,743 requests for Govt assistance against wolves were made by cattlemen, and claimed nearly $300,000 – when in reality, only 74 cattle were forensically proven to have died from wolves (and I hesitate to believe completely this number, as it can be easy for WS evaluators to overlook some illness or weakened condition for other reasons.
Forensic investigation relates largely time of death with type and extent of injury; for instance, serious wounds/blood loss, and little more)
In a recent exchange I had with MT official, I found vagueness about MT wolf policy – a claim that, even though MT FWP expressly says on their site, that their goal is to mow wolves down to levels just above minimum set by feds for reinstatement of ESA protection, the involved employee denied this, giving no alternative reason for the policy.
Go to the FWP site to check policy out. On a page, you will also find a link to “wolf attack on humans” study, which attempts to describe about 80 incidents since early 1900s. You will find that nearly all were result of naive and exaggerating humans – pets involved, etc. habituation by BC kayakers feeding coast wolves.More.
Suddenly you will realize that the study was placed there to terrify Montanans and other readers, reminiscent of Eurotales of medieval times.
I haven’t decided just how much to research and dispute yet. Montana’s vast Mountain areas hold far less wolves than does Lake Superior’s heavily roaded and peopled zones – but, tellingly, gunowners (as becomes clear when studying the issue of wolves and humans!) have the largest loudest most insistent voices all over.
I hope you all will really work to familiarize yourselves with as much info as you can, in order to change this culture of cruelty – guns and traps and death to whatever is not controlled, extinguishing life wherever humans go.
Here’s a manifesto by Dave Mech, once a young trapper, who presumes that lethal control of wolves is the only way for wolves and humans to coexist. The paper is highly relevant, and contains disputes of wolves’ trophic effects. While it is important that YOU are acquainted with scientific controversy, as it is used by those on both sides of the kill/manage issue, understand that Mech, however, considers his own mechanistic views of killing wolves, to be valid.
I seriously wonder if wolves had the guns and the science, how different it all would be. You will notice that predators will walk by both humans and prey without crazily hunting them down and attempting to exterminate every one they see.
I forgot to attach Mech paper link:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/104750776/333-is-Science-in-Danger-of-Sanctifying?secret_password=35hwawnibboc5yb6gjm
Thanks for sharing the links, especially C.A.S.H.org