Posted on 12/14/2011 3:54:54 AM PST by marktwain
With confirmation the other day by the Alaska Department of Fish & Game that at least two wolves were responsible for killing a young high school teacher, the debate about wolf management in the Pacific Northwest has erupted anew.
Good news: The argument has spread to Minnesota, where the assertion by a Cal State sociology professor who classified wolf opponents as militia nuts has been rebutted by a Minnesota state senator using reason rather than vitriol in relation to that state’s effort to de-list wolves as an endangered species.
In the mid-1990s, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released 66 wolves in Yellowstone and central Idaho, most of the U.S. celebrated. The magnificent wolf, an icon of wilderness that humans had driven to extinction in the United States, would now reoccupy part of its old range.But in the region where the wolves were introduced, the move was much more controversial.
Part of the reason was the increase, particularly in Idaho and Montana, in paramilitary militia advocates, with their masculine ideal of man as warrior who should fight the hated federal government, by armed force if necessary.—J. William Gibson, Cal State sociology professor
Here in Washington, hunters on the Hunting-Washington forum have looked at neighboring Idaho in an effort to see what is on the Evergreen State’s horizon, and they don’t like the looming picture. The discussion gets downright alarming here and here, while over on the Northwest Hiker’s forum, one wolf advocate tried to deflect the conversation about the killing of teacher Candice Berner by arguing that hunters kill more people than wolves.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
We have merely missed the mark on where to repopulate the wolves. Instead of the great NW and Alaska might I suggest Washington, DC.
They'd never survive. LOL
The destruction these animals have brought is incredible, loss of livestock, loss of dogs, and now humans. I can't even imagine what that poor woman went through at the end of her life.
When a shark chomps a person, its because “they confused them with a seal”.
When a gator chomps a person, its because “they confused them with a dog”.
Cougar apparently are easily confused concerning deer.
So what did the wolves think the teacher was? A moose calf perhaps?
Carnivores eat other animals, its what they do, and they care not that you are a person.
Has anyone read “Wolfen”? WHEW
Most of the time when a shark bites a person, they spit him out and swim away. It does seem likely most of them don't like the way we taste.
An Idaho report I read claimed that one gray wolf will kill up to 40 hoofed animals per year. The wolf only consumes about two dozen of the kills. The rest are just for sport.
Imagine how quickly an unchecked wolf population can decimate herds of elk, deer, and antelope. They’ll also take out young moose.
They drive these animals away from their feeding grounds to places that are not as fecund and also place stress on them which impacts negatively on health and breeding.
The gray wolves are a super predator and need to be kept in check. If they’re not kept in check by legal means, they will meet with all kinds of “accidents”.
I'll tell you who's NUTS: the morons who want to cultivate these dangerous predators anywhere but zoos!
The wife and I were driving through the Idaho wilderness in 2007. There weren’t many places to eat in Elk City, ID. We were at the VFW post there and in conversations with the patrons in the bar, we learned that the outfitters’ were unanimously outraged at the decision, in which they didn’t have a vote. They make their livings taking hunters out in the bush to bag an elk. But the elk herds were being decimated by the recently-reintroduced wolfpacks from Canada.
Actually, I enjoy hearing the wolves at 4 am ACROSS the river; just not in my backyard.
I've had wolves follow my dogteam on the river trail until they see me then disappear. When wolves & bear start hanging around people; you just shoot all of them and be done with it; then no problems for a couple years.
I simply can't imagine that girl not jogging with a pistol on her belt; reality in rural Alaska; sad that her ignorance killed her.
Talk about NUTS!
And more people have died in Ted Kennedy's (D-HELL) car than in all the nuclear accidents in the U.S. to date. So what?
Good start. Rock Creek Park would be a good location. So would the be the Hollywood Hills, New York's Central Park, San Francisco's Presidio, Cape Cod, and Martha's Vineyard.
Where do you come by that information?
Sharks generally don't come back over and over to the same target. They take a large bite and swim away.
To the extent that sharks have troubles with people, its because most shark attacks are by smaller sharks that simply fail to severe bone or tear lose what they have bitten.
Larger Makos and Bulls have no issue killing people, and it is hard to imagine that a Great White that cuts large seals in half would spit us out.
Given the number of tires and license plates that come out of shark stomachs, I don't think our taste is an issue.
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2875
A debatable issue, no doubt. But it is notable that many, probably most, shark attack victims are recovered relatively intact, though they often die from their wounds. People are seldom actually eaten.
Some scientists believe sharks have adapted to hunting humans as prey recently on the Mexican coast after consuming many hundreds of bodies dumped offshore by the cartels.
True of all shark attack victims, not just humans. Many seals wash up with one big bite taken out. Again, I think that humans are hit be smaller sharks in the U.S. because those are the sharks in the surf areas where humans are. Thus, they literally bite off more than they can chew.
The South Pacific is different. Big chunks are often taken off of people there.
Not actually true.
Three men were killed in an accident at the National Reactor Testing Station located about 40 miles west of Idaho Falls, ID on January 3, 1961 when the SL-1 experimental low power reactor exploded, releasing about 1,100 curies of fission products into the atmosphere.
This accident caused a change in the design of all subsequent reactors so that the removal of any single control rod could not cause the reactor to go critical.
It's an interesting incident. Check out SL-1 at Wikipedia.
Indeed
"It was recently reported that the IDF&G will get aggressive in managing the wolf population in that state’s Lolo region, where the elk herd has been decimated, primarily by wolf predation, from a high of 16,000 in the 1980s to about 2,000 elk today."
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