COURTESY PHOTO
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed Sept. 7 that wolves in the Togo pack attacked this calf. The calf survived but was euthanized to end its suffering. Fish and Wildlife issued a permit Nov. 7 allowing the rancher to shoot the pack’s remaining three wolves if caught in a private fenced pasture with cattle.
Washington Fish and Wildlife Director Kelly Susewind today authorized the killing of wolves in two packs attacking cattle in the northeast corner of the state. The orders come as the department continues to try to remove the rest of a third wolfpack.
The department plans to kill one or two wolves in the Smackout pack in Stevens County. Susewind also gave permission to a rancher in Ferry County to shoot the remaining three wolves in the Togo pack in Ferry County if the wolves enter a private fenced pasture with cattle.
Fish and Wildlife is continuing an effort to remove the remaining two wolves in the Old Profanity pack, also in Ferry County, the department’s wolf policy coordinator, Donny Martorello, said Wednesday. The department killed wolves in the pack in September and resumed targeting the pack Oct. 26 because of depredations on cattle continued.
Fish and Wildlife won’t immediately undertake removing the Togo pack because it’s occupied with the two other packs, but may in the coming weeks, according to the department.
Fish and Wildlife shot one Togo pack wolf in early September, but the pack has continued to attack cattle. The wolf already had been wounded by the rancher, who said he was approached by the wolf and shot in self-defense.
The department protocol calls for removing one or two wolves initially and waiting to see whether wolf depredations on livestock stop.
Fish and Wildlife won’t start the lethal-removal operation against the Smackout pack, or allow the shooting of Togo pack wolves, until Thursday at the earliest. The early morning directives today give environmental groups one day to go to court to challenge the order.
The notice is fallout from a lawsuit by environmental groups challenging an order last year to kill wolves. A Thurston County Superior Court judge dismissed the lawsuit, but said the department should give time for courts to review future lethal-removal orders.
The Smackout pack has killed four heifers and injured one calf on private land since Aug. 20, according to Fish and Wildlife. Four of the attacks occurred between Oct. 14 and Nov. 1.
Fish and Wildlife considers lethal removal after a pack attacks three times in 30 days or four times in 10 months. The department policy calls for ranchers to do whatever they can to prevent the attacks and for wildlife managers to conclude that the attacks will continue unless the state intervenes.
The Smackout pack has four or five adult wolves, according to recent surveys by the department. The pack includes one female wolf that had been trapped and fitted with a radio collar that transmits her location. The department has not seen evidence that the pack produced pups this year.
The Togo pack has attacked cattle at least six times in the past 10 months, according to Fish and Wildlife. Two of the attacks were confirmed after the department shot one of two adults in the pack. The department confirmed the first attack Sept. 7, but held off restarting lethal removal because the department was concerned that killing the last adult would doom the pups given their size at the time.
Fish and Wildlife confirmed Oct. 26 that the pack had attacked another calf. The latest depredation indicates the pack will continue to prey on livestock, according to the department.
Fish and Wildlife said in a statement today that it did not expect the lethal-removal operations to harm the state’s overall recovery objectives. The goal is to have wolves established and regularly reproducing at least as far west as the Cascades. Washington wolves now are mostly confined to Eastern Washington, particularly in four northeast counties.
The wolf population in the eastern one-third of Washington is more than three times the recovery goal for that region, according to Fish and Wildlife.
As the wolf population has grown in that corner of the state, so has attacks on livestock. The department has removed wolves before, dating back to 2012, but has never had three lethal-removal operations active at the same time.
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Okay. Does he have permission to lure and bait them? I hope that someone monitors his behavior. Killing two wolf packs is even worse now, with the Wolf Advisory Committee?
And why haven’t this rancher’s cattle been moved? October 15 was the deadline, and November 15 is right around the corner? I don’t understand. Other years, (w/o the wolf advisory board) the cattle would have been moved by now. Surely the rancher should be held somewhat responsible?
Complete idiocy. The wolves will do what wolves do as long as cattle are in their range.
“The department policy calls for ranchers to ‘do whatever they can’ to prevent the attacks ….” emphasis added).
Weak and wimpy repsonse. It also sounds like it could include lethal removal and illegal actions, and the department will look the other way. The department should require range riders, fladry and specific things a rancher must do, or be fined, including moving the cattle to the winter pasture by a date that should be enforced. I really do with the “Public” could sue.
After all, it is the public lands, not the rancher’s private domain.
The longer the cattle are where they should not be, the more attacks may occur, and I’m sure the ranchers and their servants at F&W know this. It is not justification for more killing, but devious and dishonest practice.
I watched a video of a rancher in WA who was crying because of alleged wolf attacks to her beloved cattle. I wonder if she cries like that the day she sends them to the slaughterhouse?
I don’t eat beef, so I do not care – I am more concerned with the preservation of our diminishing wildlife than beef provided for gluttons.
“Mediators” are nothing more than sell-outs to the Livestock Industry–nothing really has changed, as so-called “wildlife groups” continue to compromise wolf lives (and other wild lives) away. This kind of behavior has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to help the struggling, remaining Mexican Wolf population in NM and Ariz.–except embolden the enemies of wild carnivores.
The fact that some of these cowardly wildlife groups are now applauding zoos as wonderful & “necessary breeding facilities” is shameful, and may actually be aiding the demise of this species.
Why was the Yellowstone Wolf Re-Introduction program so successful? Here’s why: They were WILD Wolves, not zoo bred, and they were released on National Park Land, which has NO HUNTING AND NO GRAZING.
The only salvation for remaining wolves is to Cancel ALL LIVESTOCK GRAZING ON PUBLIC LANDS–AT THE VERY LEAST–IMMEDIATELY.
IF SO-CALLED “WILDLIFE GROUPS” HAD SPENT THEIR TIME AND $$$ THE LAST 3 DECADES ON REAL WILDLIFE PROTECTION, SUCH AS RIDDING THE CANCER OF LIVESTOCK GRAZING ON OUR PUBLIC LANDS—THE WILDLIFE WOULD BE SAFER. Unfortunately now with THE TERRIBLE ANTI-NATURE POLITICAL CLIMATE AND Climate Change and Disruption at our door step, it will be much harder to halt all the destruction.