Why wolves were reintroduced onto public lands is beyond me. There have been few positive results from these vicious creatures. Early European settlers eradicated them—or let’s say, reduced their habitat so they would stay north of the Canadian border.
The damage these little heathens have done to the livestock industry is profound. What they have done to elk and deer herds is also profound. They prefer elk to eat, but they simply like to kill cattle and sheep. They don’t eat beef.
I received a call from Phil Davis last week, who has endured and documented 54 depredations on his ranch in Cascade, ID. “Not one has been eaten—the wolves like to simply chase the cattle down until they run out of energy and collapse, then they start pushing them around until they are dead,” he said. Davis says he skins the cattle to find out exactly how they die, and it isn’t by consumption.
He gets compensated for his loss by the state, but that damage is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the problems wolves cause ranchers. The psychological damage to the cow herd is significant, and breeding season with wolves in the area may only produce a 75 percent breeding rate.
There is absolutely no reason this species should be on the endangered species list; they have fully recovered. Fish and Wildlife have let the issue get away from them, and now it’s out of control.
It’s just like the Bureau of Land Management trying to manage the wild horse. They can’t do it, and Congress needs to change their ideological tune and harvest these animals for whatever purpose they provide. I’ve always thought wild, chemical-free horse meat would be popular around the world. Just like wild-caught salmon. Perhaps we should introduce wolves to the wild horse issue.
I can’t believe that the state of Colorado passed a ballot initiative to reintroduce the gray wolf to western Colorado. The fact is, they have been roaming Colorado lands for 10 years—no reintroduction needed. Then the Mexican gray wolf will move in from the south. However, a lot of the general population has no idea what they voted for.
I’ve watched plenty of videos about how to get along with wolves and nonlethal deterrents. If you raise livestock, you’ll need to get a full-time person to continually haze the wolves. These animals are smart, and they will pick up on your patterns and movement and continually test how close they can get to you—they are vicious.
The folks in Colorado who voted to bring wolves in should be ashamed of the hardships they brought on agriculture, hunters and themselves. Most urban people will never see a wolf because they don’t really care. It sounds good. It feels good. It’s good for the ecosystem. They were wrong.
Valerius Geist, who was a professor and environmental specialist at the University of Calgary, studied wolves all his life and considered them an invasive species that will destroy an active ecosystem after they consume all wildlife. There are no natural predators for wolves, he said. Big cats used to prey on the wolf centuries ago, but they are gone too because they were dangerous.
He also said man has interrupted too much of the natural biological system and needs to manage it. He took a big-picture look at ecosystems and pointed out how Native Americans would use fire to manage the landscape. Fire is only feasible in select situations. Modern man needs to manage ecosystems for the benefit of man, not specific species. Get this natural thought out of his mind.
Everyone seems to want to use Yellowstone National Park as nature’s laboratory. This is where the first wolves were reintroduced. In 1995, when wolves were introduced, there were 17,000 elk in the park. Ten years later, there were roughly 8,300 elk. We are talking about a small land area.
Colorado currently has 280,000 elk. Colorado has a lot of elk habitat, and the herd is managed very closely by Colorado Parks and Wildlife through hunting. It’s one of Colorado’s greatest assets. Colorado game populations are a major economic resource to the state.
The damage has already been done through the ballot initiative system in Colorado. The state wildlife managers need to be tough and not let outside groups influence their public safety responsibility role. The group WildEarth Guardians has been proposing 150 packs of wolves or 750 wolves. Idaho currently has 1,500 wolves, and Endangered Species Act goals were 500 wolves. Do you think we’re creating a problem or just feeling good about ourselves? Pray for rain. — Pete Crow
