http://www.opb.org/news/article/washington-wolf-killing-smackout-pack-livestock-attacks/#.Wc0-apZmVZ8.facebook
by AP AP | Sept. 27, 2017 7:45 a.m. | Olympia, Washington
Washington officials have ended efforts to kill members of the state’s Smackout pack after two months without a documented livestock attack.
Washington officials have ended efforts to kill members of the state’s Smackout pack after two months without a documented livestock attack.

John and Karen Hollingsworth/USFWS
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says efforts to kill members of a wolf pack north of Spokane have ended.
The agency said Tuesday that wolves from the Smackout pack have shown no signs of preying on livestock in Stevens County since July when state wildlife managers trapped and killed two of its members.

Agency wolf manager Donny Martorello says the wolves killed were a 30-pound female and a 70-pound female.

Martorello says officials took that action after documenting four instances of predation on livestock over 10 months. He says under their wolf-removal protocol, the pattern of predation on calves belonging to three ranchers met the threshold for lethal removal.

He says their goal was to change the pack’s behavior and that the break in wolf attacks on livestock is consistent with the desired outcome.