Wolves Gone Wild

Fish and Wildlife Services continues their one sided management where they will not allow the Catron County Wolf Investigator into a meeting but they do let Defenders of Wildlife in to put out their information.    These tax payer funded salaried employees did not want the truth and the picture display of all the pets, horses and other live stock killed by these wolves being shown to the people that will soon be having newly bred, cage raised and habituated wolves in their yards.  They are working only to protect their jobs.  Because if the new people soon to be affected knew the truth the program would be ended. 

Wolves have constantly been showing up in peoples yards allover and yet little or nothing has been done.  They want the new communities affected to think they are doing something and following the rules when they pick up an uncollared wolf and then just toss it back out into the community to eat their horses, cattle, pets and even endanger your children.  These monkey managers will then show up and say oh you should not live here.

The Silver City Daily Press did a great job bringing out the truth and exclusive methods that US Fish and Wildlife Service is using on the Wolf Program.
Wolf Recovery Program Meetings Conclude

Silver City Daily Press - Orginal Story 

Scoping meetings on the Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Program have been concluded, but written com­ments may be submitted through Dec. 31.
At a recent meeting in Glenwood, Catron County wolf investigator Jess Carey was denied entrance with a display of pets and animals torn apart and eaten by wolves, according to Catron County Manager Bill Aymar.
“He probably could have gone in, but they wouldn’t let him bring the display,’ Aymar said. “It’s about 10 to 15 feet long, has photos and data about wolf depredations.’
Aymar said he thinks the meetings “aren’t about getting unbiased infor­mation.’
“It’s not about a dialogue; it’s checking off the boxes that meet­ings were held and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife will go ahead with what it planned in the first place,’ Aymar said. “There are wolves out there that we have no problem with. They stay away from humans. A sighting should be special, not something that you have to go to a rancher’s cattle pen to see.’
Calls to John Slown of the Wolf Recovery Program have not been returned.
Comments on the program may be sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, addressed to John Slown, New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office, 2105 Osuna NE, Albuquerque, NM 87113.
Written comments may also be faxed to (505) 346-2542 or e-mailed to R2FWE_AL@fws.gov.
One’s name and address must be included with each comment.
The information that was presented at the scoping meetings may be viewed at www.mexicanwolfeis.org.> Questions regarding the scoping process or development of a proposed rule amending the 1998 10(j) Final Rule should be directed to Slown at (505) 761-4782, according to the Wolf Recovery Program Web site.

Otero County New Mexico seams to have learned from the horrible lessons in Catron and other neighboring counties.  Their blog website is out to educate residents about the wolf program and what is coming there way.  Good job Otero!!!

Be warned nuisance wolves will bother your community eat your pets, kill your horses, slaughter your cattle, ruin your hunting business.  This is what we have seen in our communities.  Does not matter if you are rich or poor the wolves do not care.  Your county tax base will go down.  Better start building school bus shelters and fencing school yards now.  As the wolves here show up at schools and even follow children home from school. 

Don’t worry because Defenders of Wildlife will also not compensate you as promissed either.

Does not mater if all you like to do is hike the wolves do not care they will still force you up a tree to save your life.  The wolf managers will do nothing and say it is your fault because you live in their territory.   The blame game.

Don’t let the wolves into your community.

Troubling wolf behavior reported
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
By Tim Mowry
Staff Writer
Published December 8, 2007

The furor caused by a bold, dog-eating pack of wolves in Two Rivers escalated on Friday when the Department of Fish and Game received an unconfirmed report of a wolf following a person near 15 Mile Chena Hot Springs Road.

“I got a phone call from someone who described a situation where a person was followed by a wolf,” said department spokeswoman Cathie Harms, reached by cell phone shortly after a press release about the incident was issued at 5 p.m. “If this is true, this is not a good sign.”

Officials hadn’t talked to the person who was allegedly followed and knew only that it was a “young person,” Harms said.

“All I know is it’s something we need to check on,” she said. “If it’s true, it’s the next level of habituation.”

Wolves can become habituated and lose their fear of humans when they approach people with no negative response, Harms said. Habituation can progress to the point where wolves show aggression toward people but so far that’s not the case, she said. In all of the previous accounts of wolf encounters with people in the area, the wolves ran away from people, Harms said.

“But if a wolf did follow someone, that indicates a higher level of habituation, which is grounds for concern,” she said.

The report came from almost the same place where the Department of Fish and Game is holding a public meeting on Sunday to discuss concerns over the wolves, which have been roaming back and forth between Two Rivers and North Pole for more than a month.

At least three dogs have been killed and eaten — two in Two Rivers and one in North Pole — and several residents living along Chena Hot Springs Road have reported seeing wolves in their yards or on trails in the area. State wildlife officials suspect it’s the same pack of five or six wolves that killed the dogs and have been seen by residents.

Department staff are following up on Friday’s report and hope to find out more before Sunday’s 5 p.m. meeting at the Two Rivers Church of the Nazarene, located at 14.9 Mile Chena Hot Springs Road. Biologists will share what information they have collected about the wolf pack at the meeting and will try to answer as many questions as possible, Harms said.

Several residents in the area have expressed concern about the safety of their children with wolves in the area and wildlife officials encourage parents to accompany their children to and from bus stops or while playing outside, Harms said.

If confronted by a wolf, a person should face the animal and either stand their ground or slowly back away, said Harms.

“Running from an aggressive dog increases the chance of a bite, and it’s similar for wolves,” she said.

If residents see wolves around their homes or on the trails, Harms said they should try to make the wolves uncomfortable by making loud noises, shooting at them or frightening them in a way that will encourage them to avoid humans.

Wolves can be shot in defense of life or property if they threaten people or domestic animals, Harms noted. She also said that hunting and trapping season for wolves is open as long as you have a hunting or trapping license. It should be noted, however, that it is illegal to shoot a wolf with a .22-caliber rifle because wolves are classified as big game in Alaska.

Contact staff writer Tim Mowry at 459-7587.

Your tax dollars at work to protect hybrids

It should be noted that the majority of the people quoted in this article directly funded via wolf programs so their salaries are at risk if your tax payer support is removed for supporting the need to now protect wolf hybrids.  Just look at the red wolf hybrid news.

Note: that the Endangered Species Act does not protect animals like wolves that do not interbreed when mature.  The head of US Fish and Wildlife Service Southwestern Division even admited at a Wolf Meeting in Silver City, New Mexico 2007, that wolves breed with coyotes and dogs in a public meeting when asked.

From the ESA definition #16

(16) The term ‘‘species’’ includes any subspecies of fish or wildlife or plants, and any distinct population segment of any species or vertebrate fish or wildlife which interbreeds when mature.

Wolves are noted to breed with other members of the dog family.  So based on the ESA the wolf is not a species or even a sub species
Do you really want to spend your tax dollars to support a wolf that is not even a wolf?  Read between the lines how they now want you to protect this hybrid as a distinct species, thus relisting the wolf hybrid and spending more of your tax dollars.

From the New York Times article

Amid much fanfare this year, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service declared the western Great Lakes gray wolf successfully recovered from an encounter with extinction and officially removed it from the endangered species list. Under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, the wolf boomed in population to 4,000 in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin today, up from just several hundred in northern Minnesota in 1974.

But the victory celebration was premature, according to two evolutionary biologists, Jennifer A. Leonard of Uppsala University in Sweden and Robert K. Wayne of the University of California, Los Angeles. The historic Great Lakes wolf did not return intact from the edge of oblivion. Instead, the scientists report in the online edition of the journal Biology Letters, it hybridized with gray wolves moving in from Canada, coyotes from the south and west and the hybrids born of that mixing.

Wolf eradication programs and habitat destruction, followed by protection of the remaining wolves and habitat, created conditions for producing the hybrid animals, Dr. Leonard said. These animals should remain protected, she added, while researchers determine the full extent of hybridization with coyotes, whether it is continuing and whether it threatens to swamp the genetic heritage of the native wolf.

Rolf O. Peterson, a wolf ecologist at Michigan Technological University and the leader of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Eastern Gray Wolf Recovery Team, said it had been known for some time that hybridization between gray wolves and coyotes was happening in the region.

“What’s new in this paper,” he said, “is that they found no evidence of hybridization with coyotes in the historic samples — and no pure historic wolves in the current samples.”

“If the science committee had known about these findings,” he added, “we would have treated them seriously. We certainly would have liked to hold on to what was here 100 years ago. But I doubt that anything would have changed.”

The historic Great Lakes wolf is an enigma, with scientists debating whether it is a subspecies of gray wolf or a distinct species. The Fish and Wildlife Service officially considers the western Great Lakes wolf a “distinct population segment” of the gray wolf, found in a discrete geographic area.

That population today is made up largely of hybrids between the gray wolf and coyote, but some 31 percent of the animals carry genetic material from the native wolf, which appears to no longer exist in pure form. The researchers analyzed mitochondrial DNA, inherited through the mother and often used to distinguish lineages in humans and animals, from 17 early-20th century wolves and 68 contemporary wolves.

Responding to questions, several scientists saw no need to revisit the delisting in light of the new information.

“It is not clear what would be gained by keeping the Midwestern wolf population on the endangered species list,” said L. David Mech, a senior research scientist with the United States Geological Survey who has studied wolves for 50 years. “Whatever their genetic identity, there are over 4,000 wolves in the population, they are increasing rapidly, and are legally protected by the states.”

To answer the question genetically this hybrid is not a species.  It is a breed!  Just like specific breeds of dogs.

Here in the southwest Defenders of Wildlife, who claims at meetings to reimburse 100% for all confirmed wolf kills or vet expenses, we have seen time and time again how they fails to write the checks.  If they do write a check is often for less than 100%.  Your horse is worth $2000 to them as a top price. This time Defenders of Wildlife breaks their promises to compensate in Wyoming.  No doubt this will not be the first or the last time they reject a claim they promise publicly to pay. 

Of course they are still accepting your donations on the premise that they do reimburse.
  Thanks Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online! For continuing to cover this important topic so the public knows their donations to Defenders of Wildlife are not really being used for the intended purpose.  Thanks for helping to expose what is going on with Defenders of Wildlife. 

I feel saddened for the animals that get injured and killed and also the people that continue to get jerked around by the environMental Extreme.  More details about the life threatening injuries this mule Bonny endured in this earlier story.   

In August 2006, a mule was attacked by a wolf or wolves while in a pasture northwest of Pinedale. Bonny, who is owned by Wolf Lake Outfitters, suffered numerous wounds, including having the base of her ears chewed up, gashes to her hocks and life-threatening wounds to her stomach, according to Todd Stevie, had the job of tending to the mule which somehow managed to survive the attack.“They had her down,” Stevie said of the wolf attack, yet Bonny managed to get back up and escape, hurt but alive.

Federal wildlife officials were quick to confirm that a wolf or wolves was responsible for the damage.  

I also guess if a wolf was to run your mule through a fence that also would not count as damage.   This is what wolf recovery looks like!  Carnage. 

Another word on wolf compensation - Never send Defenders photos of damage
by Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online!  Orginal Story
November 30, 2007
Todd Stevie is simply the most current Sublette County, Wyoming livestock producer who has been denied compensation for damages caused by wolves. The story of the attack on Stevie’s mule was detailed here a few days ago. Although USDA Wildlife Services personnel confirmed that the damage to the mule was caused by a wolf or wolves, a full year after the event, Defenders of Wildlife sent Stevie a letter denying his claim. 

So what’s up with this? Defenders likes to tout how it fully compensates producers for damages. Stevie’s experience demonstrates the fallacity of Defenders’ statements. Unfortunately, he’s not alone. Defenders was never on the scene, never saw the mule, yet it claims its own experts determined that the damages were consistent with what could have been caused by a barbed-wire fence. This, even though Wildlife Services experts had already examined the ACTUAL ANIMAL and found it had been attacked by a wolf or wolves. 

The lesson learned is this - if you’re ever in the position of seeking reimbursement from Defenders of Wildlife for wolf predation, never send photos in with your claim. This is what Defenders used to deny Stevie’s claim. Animal damage control experts have even testified in court that photographs don’t tell the whole story. Scratch marks on the surface of an animal’s hide won’t show the depth of the puncture wounds caused by canid teeth, nor the amount of tissue damage caused by biting with powerful jaws. When it comes to wolf damage, it’s all below the surface. 

So for what it’s worth, take this advice: Do not include photographs with an application for wolf predation reimbursement from Defenders of Wildlife.  You can read more at Wolf Watch 

A few days ago a wolf that was seen in the town of Glenwood, New Mexico and on Nov 20, 2007 the wolf stalked the school playground.  The school was in lockdown.  Bill Richardson was given another chance to be concerned about our children’s safety. 

Yet again like times before Bill Richardson fails to protect children and panders to the environMental extreme by spending untold taxpayer dollars to look for some habituated home stalking Mexican Gray Wolves. 

“The disappearance of the Durango Pack of endangered Mexican Gray Wolves is a disturbing development in our efforts to recover this important species in New Mexico and Arizona,” he said. “I am asking the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to redouble their efforts to locate these wolves. The New Mexico Department of Game & Fish stands ready to help with this effort as needed.”

Yes the Durango pack is missing but a wolf stalking a school gave this presidential candidate a chance to show he cared for children’s safety.  But Bill Richardson loves his wolves not your children.

Note:  Bill Richardson said nothing on this wolf incident.  No redoubling efforts to protect children.  No requests to collar this uncollared wolf.  Nothing.  Are you children safe with Bill Richardson in the White House?

This wolf, which weighs as much as 180 pounds, escaped on the 29th and the owner failed to report the escape as a responsible citizen would do.  There has also been time to see if this animal was property registered and tagged.  Communities were put at risk when this habituated wolf was allowed to run free. This person should be charged with endangering children.  This owner should be in some hot water.

Escaped wolf captured and put down in Owyhee County
Idaho Press-Tribune Staff
newsroom@idahopress.com 
Updated 13 hours 51 minutes ago
A domesticated wolf at large in Owyhee County was captured and put down today after a resident spotted the injured animal this morning.

The animal is thought to have killed one sheep and maimed two others after escaping from its pen in late October.
A deputy from the Owyhee County Sheriff’s Office and an official from Idaho Fish and Game Conservation responded to the residence where the wolf had been located around 10:30 a.m. The animal appeared injured on one leg and the Fish and Game officer decided the only option was to destroy the animal.

Officials had feared that the animal might pose a danger to humans, due to its familiarity with people, spurring a week-long search by multiple agencies.

Authorities originally planned to capture the animal, but officials with the Owyhee County Sheriff’s Office said that the wolf was destroyed when they determined it could not be approached close enough to tranquilize.

It is legal in Idaho to own wolves or hybrids that display wolf characteristics, provided that a $10 annual permit is obtained for each animal. The animal’s ears must also be tattooed to help distinguish them from wild wolves in the event of an escape.

An investigation is ongoing into whether or not the escaped wolf had the required tattoo— and whether or not the owner violated a requirement that she quickly report the escape.
Original Story

School on lockdown due to wolf stalking children

Friday, November 30, 2007 children at the Glenwood school in New Mexico had a wolf stalking children at their play ground.  The uncollared wolf appeared and was about 17 yards from the playground.  The school was quickly locked down.

The county wolf investigator was called out to cast tracks and look for other wolf evidence.

In 2005 the school in Blue Arizona was also stalked by the Aspen wolves who were later relocated to New Mexico and have been involved in various attacks and kills including slaughtering a little girls horse.

Is this what the wolf lovers were looking for when they support wolf recovery?

Another posting from WolfCrossing.org showing how dangerious these habituated Mexican gray wolves are.  The environMental extreme claim the wolves are not dangerous and will run away.   Another unsafe wolf encounter.  When will the public be told the truth instead of the Disney G rated version of wolves.  Wolves are dangerous predators.  Habituated wolves are even more dangerous.  

This is the same Luna wolf pack noted for encircling a boy a little less than a year ago.

On Monday night November 5th at 10:00 PM our deer hunting camp on the West Fork of the Gila River, was terrorized by a pack of wolves estimated to be 4 to 6 in number. They came right into our camp howling right between our hunters tent and the cook tent and then just on the other side of the guide’s tent. We had our horses and mules high lined at the camp and when we started hearing the wolves growl right next to the horses, we got up and tried to run them out. We walked down to the end of the highlines, with several thousands of dollars worth of horse and mule fllesh tied up and it probably looked like a smorgage board or shish kabob to the wolves, and it became quiet for a little while. We went back to the tent, and then the wolves moved back in and started howling again.

My son Brian went back down to protect the animals by getting between them and the wolves, and then the wolves really set up a racket of a combination of howling, yap barking, growling and snapping their teeth. They were really intimidated by him being there. It sounded like 4 to 6 wolves and my son held his ground in the pitch black of night and had to stay there for probably 30 minutes before he was satisfied they had maybe left. Needless to say we didn’t get much sleep the rest of the night. Brian said it litterally scared the hell out of him!

Our three hunters from the San Antonio, TX area were really scared, so much so they stayed real quiet through the whole ordeal in fear that the wolves might hear them and come to their tent, which is where the first howls came from. They literally can not believe what the Government is doing to the people here by putting the wolves back. The old timers got rid of them for good reason.
Over the last several years we have had wolves howling out side of our camp but never had them come right through camp and absolutely have no fear of humans or human scent. They acted very aggressive and especially so when my son confronted them the last time. They really became excited. These wolves are absolutely a danger to humans and livestock as they seemed to not even care about human scent like most wild animals.

We think Nick Smith used to camp where we were camped, when he was packing elk meat and dog food in a few years ago to feed the wolves. We had heard the wolfer airplane circling in the TurkeyFeather Mountain area earlier that day and the tracks confirmed they had come up out of Cooper Canyon and Iron Creek on the trail and over Turkey Feather Pass and down to the West Fork of the Gila and returned out the same way. There were wolf tracks on the trail for about 5 miles.

When we came out yesterday on Thursday November 8th, we met a group of male back packers who were camped on the confluence of Cooper Canyon and Iron Creek and they related a story to my hunters who were on the back of our packstring, and I didn’t get to talk to, as I had passed by them, or I would have gotten a name and info from them. They said that on Wednesday evening that they were above camp gathering firewood when they noticed movement and the saw the wolves and evidently the wolves made a move toward them and they ran back to camp and one of them climbed up in a tree and waited until the wolves left. They were terrified!

full posting from WolfCrossing.org

Interesting post from another blog on the 3 Strikes Rule for Wolves.  The author makes a good point about the three strikes rule. 

I wanted to make sure a few points were added to the information and common assumptions about the 3 strikes rule and how things are implemented here in the Southwest.

• A few things you should know are that to get a strike against a wolf 100% of the evidence must be there not just a overwhelming amount of evidence.  You better document everything including preserving tracks with tarps etc.  Some counties have a wolf investigator.   It is best to call them to do the investigation.
• The strikes are to go against all wolves in the pack involved but here on the ground it is usually only given to one wolf (usually with the fewest strikes).  Measurements are taken on all the wolf bites so they know which pack members were involved but this does not matter to the welfare US Fish and Wildlife Service as they do their job to protect the wolves reputation and their jobs.
• Strikes roll off in a year so if US Fish and Wildlife service picks up a wolf and takes them to wolfie spa for a few months to find a mate many of the strikes roll off and they have a free bill to kill again when released.
• Some three strike wolves that were picked up have been re-released near communities, farms and ranches only to kill again and be legally killed themselves. 
• If a wolf kills your whole flock of sheep or heard of horses in a 24 hour period regardless of the number of animals killed that is only one strike.
• Strikes do not count for dogs killed, chickens and other pets.  These are a free kill for the wolves.
• Human encounters even dangerious ones do not count as a strike
• The people getting to decide the strikes are also the people running the program.  You and your animals loose. 

Who knows how much the people here in the Southwest have had to pay out to the program in emotional and financial expences.  Do you want to watch your lovely horse get skinned out by strangers all to tell you later oh it must have only been one wolf (when you saw 4 on your horse). How many dead animals do you want to pick up in one day?  How many foals, calves, puppies, and other pets need to be ripped apart before people understand the tragey of this Mexian Gray Wolf program?   Are kids next?