Free Republic

KALISPELL (AP) — A man hunting black bear shot and killed a wolf near Olney, northwest of Whitefish. Zachary Harms of Kalispell was driving his truck up a forest road Tuesday when he saw movement. He walked along the road with his rifle, thinking he may have seen a black bear. Two wolves then ran out from the side of the road. One ran across the road and up the hillside. The other ran down the road towards Harms. The wolf closed to approximately 10 feet and Harms fired, hitting the female wolf in the front of the head. The...

Montana’s wolf population increased 34 percent over the past year, to an estimated 422 wolves in 73 packs... The wolves are nearly equally distributed between northern and southern Montana...although the bulk of the population growth was in northwestern and far western Montana... Wolves are still listed under the Endangered Species Act. Delisting was set for late March, but lawsuits are expected to delay that. As for conflicts with ranchers, the FWP reported an increase in the number of confirmed cattle deaths due to wolves, from 32 to 75, and an increase in the number of sheep deaths, from four to...

Are Wolves The Pronghorn's Best Friend?Yellowstone pronghorn populations directly benefit from the presence of wolves, a new Wildlife Conservation Society study says. (Credit: Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society) ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2008) — As western states debate removing the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act, a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society cautions that doing so may result in an unintended decline in another species: the pronghorn, a uniquely North American animal that resembles an African antelope. The study, appearing in the latest issue of the journal Ecology, says that fewer wolves mean more coyotes, which...

A sled dog tour operator in the Interior village of Bettles said wolves have killed and eaten two of his sled dogs in the past two weeks, continuing what has been a statewide trend this winter. “They drug them right out of their collars,” Max Hanst said by phone Tuesday from the village 180 miles north of Fairbanks. “The most recent one was three nights ago. I lost another one six days before that.” Three days prior to the first attack, Hanst said he shot and killed an old, emaciated wolf trying to dig its way into a puppy pen....

Rocky Mountain National Park officials say a recent report of a possible wolf sighting is credible, but it's difficult to be sure without more evidence. Ranger Jack Dinsmoor said Friday that two experienced park volunteers reported seeing what looked like a wolf on Dec. 4. They didn't get a photo, but large canine paw prints were later found in the area. Dinsmoor said park officials don't know if the animal was a wolf, a wolf-dog hybrid or ... Baskfield said the division did confirm that a large black animal caught on video by wildlife officers last February in northern Colorado...

The father of an Ontario man killed in a wolf attack in northern Saskatchewan says it's a relief to finally have the truth come out. A coroner's jury in Prince Albert ruled Thursday that wolves killed Kenton Carnegie in November 2005. The 22-year-old University of Waterloo engineering student had been on a work-term ... An expert, who prepared a report for the coroner's office, said it was more likely a bear killed Carnegie. But in the end, the jury dismissed that notion, declaring it a wolf attack. "Kenton was an honest man," he said. "His life was honest, we didn't...

'They were not afraid of us,' woman says. Neither the three women nor their dogs heard the pack of wolves creeping up behind them as they jogged on Artillery Road in the frigid morning air. One minute it was peaceful. Then she glanced back and saw the pack of about eight wolves spanning the road, only a few feet behind. A melee ensued, accompanied by screaming, snarling, blood and pepper spray. "It was the most terrifying thing I've ever been through."... The increasingly emboldened Elmendorf wolf pack is blamed for killing one dog and wounding another in Eagle River this...

Wolves roaming the outskirts of Fairbanks are making pet owners nervous... What the story calls a “pack of bold, hungry” animals made lunch of two dogs recently - one in North Pole and one about 20 miles out Chena Hot Springs Road. A number of callers to the Department of Fish and Game have reported spotting the pack. Cathie Harms, a spokesperson with the state Department of Fish and Game. “Everybody is used to seeing moose on the road, but not everybody is used to seeing wolves in their yard.”

Bringing back animals which were hunted to extinction in Britain - including the wolf, lynx, beaver and wild boar - would not be difficult, according to a new report. The animals could be brought back to live free in the wild without posing any great threat to people, crops or the environment, it is claimed. A report from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University (WCRU) said while further work needed to be done on their impact, there was no obvious reason to block their return. The animals roaming free in remote areas would enhance the natural environment and...

PRAY - For rancher Randy Petrich, the removal of gray wolves from the endangered-species list - a move that would open up the animals to hunting in the Northern Rockies for the first time in decades - couldn't come soon enough. Petrich has seen fresh wolf tracks almost every morning this fall - close enough to threaten his cattle. "I believe that any wolf on any given night, if there happens to be a calf there, they will kill it," ... Just 12 years since the wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park ... federal officials say the sharp rise...

I'm Tossing in with Romney With apologies for any coronaries caused. By Leon H Wolf Posted in 2008 | 2008 | Elections | Mitt Romney | Republicans | Stuff I Never Thought I'd Say — Comments (121) / Email this page » / Leave a comment » So this is probably the last thing I saw myself doing nine or ten months ago when I first started seriously following the 2008 race and committed to support Sam Brownback. But here I find myself doing it nonetheless. So I suppose a little bit of explanation here is in order. In the...

MIDI - LAST KISS The warning's made, and it's causing fear She made certain that Wolf would hear He's very frightened and knows she doesn't kid She had to change the tone from that one question that Russert did When you cover the queen, do so carefully We all have heard of tragedies Bodies are found...things occur When in her presence, you must defer Why take the chance...it is not worth the price Don't make her mad...don't roll the dice To summarize, don't be a fool With her you never want to duel Oh where or where can Wolf's...

MIDI - HUNGRY LIKE A WOLF Dark is the heart that's threatening him To mount defenses, where to begin? He is frightened, so frightened, and he doesn't know what to do That evil woman gave him a sign He got the message -- do not dare cross the line He is frightened, so frightened, and he doesn't know what to do Just look and see...that Hillary has your nads, Wolf Don't get in her way or you will pay...Hillary has your nads, Wolf Just look and see...that Hillary is keeping them in her lockbox, Wolf Don't get in her...

ENNIS - More than a century ago, a wolf-like creature prowled the Madison Valley, killing livestock and letting out screams that one account said would leave a person's hair standing on end. A bullet from a Mormon settler's rifle ended the animal's life and triggered stories of the creature that were passed along through generations of family history and local folklore. The only evidence of the creature's existence was a missing taxidermy mount and a grainy black-and-white photograph of that mount - which fueled strange speculation about what kind of animal it really was. Now after 121 years, the taxidermy...

Hillary comes out swinging! Who's crying now? Hillary Presidential! Hillary powerful, masterful! Goldilocks kills Wolf!

A pack of wolves killed about a half-dozen sled dogs from three teams in Marshall on Wednesday night before residents of the Yukon River village chased them out of town, according to village officials and Alaska State Troopers. The wolves killed three adult dogs, including a female with pups, several villagers said. About three of the pups were also killed and several other dogs injured. "They were running through the whole town here," said Dewayne Cooper, the housing improvement officer for the Native Village of Marshall. "They're not just hanging out by the dog teams. I don't know what they're...

Last week, the body of 22-year-old Kenton Joel Carnegie was found near Wollaston Lake in Northern Saskatchewan mauled to death by what is suspected to have been wolves. "All of the injuries discovered in the autopsy are consistent with animal bites. But you can't completely rule everything out until the investigation is complete," Heather Russel, spokesperson for the RCMP told CBC. Although the type of animal bite has not been confirmed, suspicions run high that they were that of wolves. Tracks were found near the body, and locals have been reporting a growing number of close encounters with wolves. Carnegie...

Free from Condemnation Today's Scripture “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live and walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit” (Romans 8:1 AMP). Today's Word from Joel and Victoria When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are free from condemnation! Is there something that you feel guilty about? If you have repented, the Bible says He takes your sin and throws it as far as the east is from the west. He casts your sins into the sea of forgetfulness....

Bill Paul walked down a rutted logging road on a farm north of town, pointing out signs of wolves. Tracks crossed the soft sand. Scat laced with deer hair was obvious. Yet the half-dozen wolf traps Paul had set the past few days remained unsprung. Score Round 1 for the wolf. But cut a little slack for Paul, who retired Friday after more than 30 years as a federal wolf trapper.

A kayaker's life-and-death struggle with a hungry wolf on B.C.'s remote north coast... has prompted a conservation officer to warn against taking wolf encounters too lightly. "This was a predatory wolf attack," conservation officer James Zucchelli confirmed in an interview from his Bella Coola Valley office. "That fellow was perceived as a prey source. He was attacked with intent to eat. The wolf saw him and took off running at him." the attack reinforces the fact that wolves are predators and capable of attacking humans under certain circumstances... The fit, 31-year-old Port Moody kayaker was setting up his tent on...

Tourists scrambled over a fence to escape a wolf enclosure in northern Idaho after two wolves they had come to see with no barriers separating them chased down and killed a deer that had wandered in through an open gate. The four visitors from Charlotte, N.C., were in the 5-acre "picture pen" at Wolf People along with a 5-year-old female wolf, a 1-year-old male wolf, and two 12-week-old pups. Visitors pay to enter the enclosure with a wolf handler so they can have unobstructed views of the wolves and take photos at close range. But a deer ran by the...

Thousands of vacationers in the West will likely see wolves in the wild for the first time this summer, often from the road but sometimes while camping or hiking. The federal government and state agencies that manage wolves have concise rules on what is legal in these encounters, and experts who study wolf behavior offer advice on how to handle what is likely to be an unforgettable experience. "Wolves don't turn and run away immediately like we're used to with other animals," said Carolyn Sime, gray wolf program coordinator with the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department. "The other thing...

Animals mauled neighbor’s dog in December. Jacqueline Harris, who faces eight criminal charges in connection with the attack and other complaints about the animals, said she’ll keep her 16 animals ... On Dec. 29, several of her animals escaped from their enclosure and attacked neighbor Brad Boardman’s German shepherd... County planning officials said she should have had a permit to keep so many animals in a residential zone, but they never pursued it ... She also should have had a state kennel license from the Colorado Department of Agriculture, which requires anyone with more than 15 dogs to have one....

A Bitterroot Valley, Mont., rancher who lost several calves to wolves spent the night in his car to guard his herd, and shot a wolf as it moved among his cattle. "There were all these black shapes, cows running everywhere," said Ed Cummings, who was awakened at 4:30 a.m. on June 5 by his dog's growling. "And right in the middle of them, just sort of trotting around, is this wolf." Cummings lost his shoe while trying to get out of the compact car, keep an eye on the wolf and grab the rifle he'd borrowed. "I didn't make a...

Republican Presidential Candidate Debate #3 - Manchester, New Hampshire 06/05/07 - Official Discussion Thread WMUR-TV, CNN, and the New Hampshire Union Leader will host a Republican debate in Manchester, New Hampshire on the campus of Saint Anselm College. Moderated by Wolf Blitzer. Debate begins at 7 p.m. EDT (4 p.m. PDT) and will last two hours. Sam Brownback Jim Gilmore Rudy Giuliani Mike Huckabee Duncan Hunter John McCain Mitt Romney Ron Paul Tom Tancredo Tommy Thompson Watch live video including complete coverage of the Republican debate on CNN.com

Catron County Manager Bill Aymar says officials only want to prevent problems by asking the federal government to remove a pregnant female Mexican gray wolf released on the county's border after it killed two cows elsewhere. But Victoria Fox, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says the agency has no reason to remove the wolf. The dispute over the animal -- designated F924 -- began as soon as it was released April 25 in southwestern New Mexico. The next day, the county demanded it be removed as an "imminent danger." Fish and Wildlife rejected the demand last...

The Talk Shows Sunday, April 29th, 2007 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and wife Cindy McCain. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., presidential candidate. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa. THIS WEEK (ABC): Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., presidential candidate; actress Natalie Portman. LATE EDITION (CNN) : Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Reps. Adam Putnam, R-Fla., and Jane Harman, D-Calif.; Hoshyar Zebari, Iraqi foreign minister; European Commission...

When conservation officer Steve Peterson got a call that a timber wolf was chasing vehicles on a country road near Brimson, he thought it was prank or a misidentified German shepherd. But then he saw it firsthand. "I couldn't believe it. It was like a dog chasing cars," Peterson said. "It looked like a big, healthy male wolf. No mange." Responding to the call last Friday, Peterson saw the animal hide in the ditch as a pickup approached and then come bounding out to chase it. The wolf did the same when Peterson drove to that spot, where he stopped...

There are now at least 1,300 wolves prowling Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, far more than anyone imagined when the species was reintroduced in the Northern Rockies 12 years ago. The wolf population has, on average, grown by about 26 percent a year for the past decade. The latest estimates, which summarize counts completed at the end of 2006, show they aren't slowing down. "I keep thinking we're at the top end of the bubble," said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "I can't see that there's room for any more, but we'll see." As...

Syrian Papers on US Republican Representatives' Meetings, Statement in Damascus Originally published on 4/2/2007 by Syria -- OSC Summary in Arabic The three official Syrian daily newspapers -- Al-Ba'th, Tishrin, and Al-Thawrah -- on 2 April publish only the two Syrian News Agency reports on the separate meetings that Republican House of Representative members Frank Wolf, Joe Pitts, and Robert Aderholt separately held with President Bashar al-Asad and Foreign Minister Walid al-Mu'allim in Damascus on 1 April. They offer no further reporting and make no comment. Damascus Al-Watan in Arabic, a private newspaper, on 2 April publishes, in addition to...

The official kill program is far behind in its effort to protect moose and other prey. State game managers will pay people to kill wolves in an effort to boost Alaska's predator- control program. The 180 volunteer pilots and aerial gunners who are the backbone of the program can get $150 in cash for turning in legs of freshly killed wolves, Gov. Sarah Palin's office announced Tuesday. Previously, the only reward was a wolf pelt they could sell, usually for somewhere between $200 and $300, said Bruce Bartley, Department of Fish and Game spokesman. The state created its current wolf-kill...

The US Fish and Wildlife Service says a pack of endangered Mexican gray wolves has killed a horse belonging to a Catron County family. Mark Miller and his family returned to their homestead on the Diamond Creek in southwestern New Mexico about three weeks ago to find the remains of their horse. Tracks show the wolves apparently chased the horse from a pasture into a corral and killed it. Miller says his family has tried yelling at the wolves, throwing rocks and installing noisemakers, but he says the pack continues to be a problem.

The head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday his agency will start removing federal protection from gray wolves in Montana and Idaho by January, regardless of whether Wyoming has submitted an acceptable plan to manage its own wolves by then. Wyoming's plan is tied up in lawsuits, and Fish and Wildlife Director Dale Hall said his agency is moving ahead with Idaho and Montana, where management plans are already in place. ( Canadian ) Wolves were reintroduced to the northern Rocky Mountains a decade ago after being hunted to near-extinction, and now number more than 1,200 in...

An environmental group went to court Thursday in an effort to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to expand a program to reintroduce the endangered Mexican gray wolf in New Mexico and Arizona. The Center for Biological Diversity, which has offices in both states, alleged in a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., that Fish and Wildlife has refused to implement recommendations of a scientific panel that reviewed the program. Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Vickie Fox of the agency's Albuquerque office said federal officials haven't had a chance to review the lawsuit and do not in general comment...

BILLINGS, Mont. -- Was it a wolf, or wasn't it? The mysterious, sheep-killing predator shot and killed a month ago between Jordan and Circle was initially thought to be a wolf. But now, wildlife officials aren't so sure. "Frankly, it has mixed characteristics," said Carolyn Sime, head of the wolf program for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Some clues indicate that it's not a wolf from among the 1,200 or so that live in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The animal shot in Garfield County in early November had shades of orange, red and yellow in its fur, unlike the Northern...

Washington, D.C., November 27, 2006 – Having successfully turned pieces of giant soybean stalks into charcoal briquettes, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) chemical engineer Justin Barone now believes they would make good fiberboard and other wood-substitute products as well. ARS geneticist Thomas E. Devine took the plants to Barone after noticing they had a rare ability to stand up straight all season, despite their unusual height of up to 7 feet. Soybean plants often lodge—fall down—as they grow taller. Barone is with the ARS Environmental Management and Byproduct Utilization Laboratory, and Devine is with the ARS Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory, both...

German spymaster buried in Berlin Nov 26, 2006 Several hundred people gathered at a cemetery in east Berlin on Saturday to bury Markus Wolf, the legendary East German spymaster who died earlier this month at the age of 83. As head of the elite foreign intelligence division of the communist state's Stasi secret police, Wolf masterminded some of the Cold War's most audacious operations. He planted an agent close to West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, a move which led to Brandt's downfall when the spy was exposed in 1974. "Markus Wolf was a true and loyal friend of my country,"...

Markus Wolf, known as Cold War spymaster, dies at age 83 By Jeffrey Fleishman Los Angeles Times Former East Germany spy chief Markus Wolf is seen in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate in this 1995 photo. WARSAW, Poland — Markus Wolf, the spymaster who epitomized Cold War espionage as head of the brutal and inventive East German foreign-intelligence service, died Thursday at his Berlin home. He was 83. The cause of death was not announced. Suave and elusive, Mr. Wolf was such an enigma that Western intelligence agencies didn't know exactly what he looked like during tense decades when a...

Markus Wolf, the sinister East German spymaster who spun his web across Western Europe, has died peacefully in his sleep — taking with him some of the darkest secrets of the Cold War.A solitary red rose was deposited by a sympathiser yesterday on the doorstep of his Berlin apartment block. But few tears were being shed for the 83-year-old Stasi general who dispatched some 30,000 agents to seduce Nato secretaries, buy up politicians, vacuum up secrets and train terrorists. Normally voluble politicians contacted for comment yesterday refused to utter a word, as if Mr Wolf were a demonic presence. “Let...

Mon Oct 30 2006 13:07:04 ET In a sit-down interview with Neil Cavuto set to air on FOX NEWS at 4pm EST, Vice President Cheney praises his wife's performance on CNN last Friday when she challenged the cable news network's editorial bias: CAVUTO: Your wife, Mr. Vice President, created a little bit of a stir in an appearance on a rival news network last week, taking exception to the way that network portrayed the economy, the government, that things are going to hell in a hand basket. I'm sort of paraphrasing here. Actually, she was much more to the point...

Blogger and anarchist Josh Wolf, spending his 57th day in federal prison today for refusing to surrender video he shot of a violent San Francisco protest, is well on his way to becoming the longest-jailed journalist in U.S. history. To the government, the 24-year-old San Franciscan is hindering a federal grand jury investigation into serious crimes -- an attack on a police officer who suffered a fractured skull during the July 2005 rally and the attempted burning of his patrol car. To Wolf and his supporters, including prominent press organizations, he is the latest victim of a Bush administration assault...

"Or maybe the case has no merit." So suggests the latest issue of the American Lawyer, citing one theory as to why Valerie Plame of CIA-leak fame suddenly parted ways with her attorney, Proskauer Rose partner Christopher Wolf -- her next-door neighbor, no less -- shortly after her civil action was filed against senior Bush administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and White House aide Karl Rove. "The breakup was a shock," writes the magazine's Elizabeth Goldberg, given that Mr. Wolf had filed the suit only "a month earlier." Headlined "File and run," the article quotes lawyer Victoria Toensing,...

Facts from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about wolves in Park County and northwest Wyoming include: There are at least 75 wolves in at least nine packs in Park County. Two additional packs are suspected but they haven't yet been confirmed. Final cattle depredation numbers won't be available until the end of the year. Wolf numbers this year have increased in Wyoming... There are about 143 wolves in Yellowstone Park in 14 packs. There's about 166 wolves in Wyoming outside Yellowstone Park in 17-20 packs. Idaho has about 650 wolves in 70 packs. Numbers from Montana this year are...

State wildlife officials take too long to authorize the killing of problem wolves, ranchers and others said Friday at a meeting of the agency oversight committee of the Environmental Quality Council. "It's like a guy's robbing a bank and you have to go get an arrest warrant,"... "It doesn't make a lot of sense." More than 50 people attended the meeting that drew Fish, Wildlife and Parks Director Jeff Hagener, agency biologists and several state legislators. People from Idaho and Wyoming and members of anti-wolf groups pushing for indiscriminate killing of the predators also attended. A few members of conservation...

The dispute between dominant species over shared habitat in the West is escalating. The proposal emphasizes continued protections for endangered species, and it states that such measures "shall be directed at the offending animal" while not jeopardizing the "viability of predator populations." The "offending animal" is the one perceived as a threat to people and livestock. There now are more than 1,000 wolves in the Northern Rockies region. In Idaho alone, the offspring of 35 Canadian wolves now number more than 500. Their main prey are...deer and elk. But they have attacked domestic animals as well...through 2005...( at least )...

As an animal lover, Kathy Bryan hated to put them down. But when the three wolves began trying to encircle her, she felt she didn’t have a choice. She killed two of them with shotgun blasts. A deputy sheriff later tracked down and shot the third. All had escaped from a pen at a neighbor’s house. The unusual scene played out Sunday morning at the Bryans’ home on Rock Haven Road near Hanover in Licking County. She went to investigate when her three dogs began baying. Bryan saw a wolf with its mouth around the neck of Roo the beagle....

An effort to reunite three wolf pups with their father is up in the air after conservationists found the dad's tracking collar on the ground. Wildlife conservationists on the Menominee Indian reservation in Wisconsin say the tracking collar was torn or cut off. It was found Wednesday a few miles from the outdoor pen holding the pups. Conservationists on the Menominee reservation wonder whether the father wolf was killed. "It would be so disappointing," Menominee biologist Don Reiter said. "We are going back to the site to examine everything again." Biologists had hoped the father wolf and his new mate...

ST. PAUL, MN (AP) -- Three orphaned wolf pups headed on a road trip across Wisconsin on Monday. Tucked in a crate in the back of a van, the scruffy, motherless little guys traveled to reunite with their dad, a wild gray wolf roaming the Menomonee Indian reservation near Green Bay, WI The pups are part of a high-stakes biology experiment that scientists in Minnesota and across the border are crossing their fingers over. The puppies have been raised since early May at the Wildlife Science Center outside Forest Lake by a captive wolf serving as a surrogate mother. The...

The Beast of Cannock Chase is back - and on the hard-shoulder. Motorists on Junction 10A of the M6, near Cannock, jammed Highways Agency helplines on Wednesday morning, with reports of a 'wolf-like creature' racing between lanes at rush hour. Motorists looked on in disbelief as the three-foot long creature, described as 'greyish black', raced between lanes, dodging stunned motorists before diving for cover in nearby trees. Highways Agency staff joined motorway police to hunt for the creature and later stated the 'beast' was likely to be a husky dog. But a spokesperson at Saga Radio, whose eye-in-the-sky traffic reports...

GRANGEVILLE — Hello. My name is Scott Richards. I have lived in Grangeville for the last 17 years. I have enjoyed training my hunting dogs for the past 34 years. To do this it takes a great deal of love for your dogs and for the great outdoors. I have always prided myself in the manner of which I train my dogs and take care of them. When I choose a new pup, he or she spends the first 6 months in my house. He or she is loved and a bond is there forever. I do not believe there...