Free Republic

For some people, hybrid wolf dogs are pets. For others, they're predators. Gary Schukantz said he last saw his three small dogs in his backyard ... "I didn't see any of my dogs, and I heard a yelp," . Schukantz said a hybrid wolf-dog came out of the woods and took off with his beloved pets. Shortly after the wolf ran off, Schukantz came across his youngest pet, a tiny Yorkshire terrier ..."We found his body and got him back," . Schukantz would have tried going after his pets, he said, but the wolf-dog turned on him and backed him...

In 1995 the federal government began transplanting Canadian gray wolves into Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. That program touched off a fierce range war that continues to rage, pitting farmers, ranchers, hunters, conservationists, outdoor recreationists, and rural folk against the major environmentalist lobbying organizations, government bureaucrats, the big-city media, and urban politicians. After being protected for 14 years, limited hunting seasons have finally been allowed for wolves this fall, and around 150 wolves have been taken thus far. Wolf advocates are howling that the permitted hunts are "barbaric" and that those who kill wolves are "murderers." A coalition of radical environmental...

With an estimated 1,645 gray wolves now on the landscape in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, their recovery is heralded by many government officials as an amazing success story. Yet it hasn't come cheap. Americans have spent more than $35 million to protect, reintroduce and manage gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains since they were first put on the list of animals protected by the Endangered Species Act in 1974. And since gray wolves are no longer a federally protected species in Montana and Idaho, those states are now in charge of managing them - and footing the bill for...

The Dillon ranchers who lost more than 120 buck sheep in an August wolf attack last week lost 23 lambs from the same area when wolves struck again. Kathy Konen said this week that despite the presence of a herder and guard dogs, wolves struck the herd sometime in the early morning hours Oct. 17. She and husband Jon Konen lost 23 weaned lambs. "They're in the area, and they've killed once," she said of wolves. "We knew they would come back and kill again." The Konens in August lost 122 sheep to wolves in the same pasture in the...

YAKIMA, Wash. -- With two wolf packs totaling about a dozen animals and more expected in the coming years, Washington state is grappling with a proposed wolf management plan. Authors of the plan called the process that produced it wrenching and polarizing. In short: a flashpoint issue.When it comes to attitudes about wolves, there seems to be no middle ground.Hunters are afraid wolves will decimate elk and deer populations. Ranchers fear the state’s newest alpha predator will wreak havoc on their livestock. Conservationists worry that hunters and ranchers will shoot the wolves despite state or federal protections.A recently released draft...

eBay.com Rejects U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Science It has come to our attention that the online auction site eBay has apparently taken it upon itself to enforce its own interpretation of the Endangered Species Act. SCI would like to make you, your friends, chapter members and ALL hunters aware of a policy statement that eBay recently posted in response to a query about auctioning an Idaho governor's wolf tag. The following email, in which eBay stated it that considers "all wolves within the U.S. as endangered, regardless of their actual designation," came directly from an eBay.com customer representative. ----------------------...

I recently received e-mails from friends showing mother cows with their rectums and female organs torn from their bodies by the wolves. These cows were lying down and the blood and raw meat trailed down on their legs. You could tell they were in awful pain. I am sure hundreds of our deer and elk are suffering the same way. All you wolf lovers should take a good look at these pictures and share them with your families and your children, show them what these savage animals are really all about. Anyone that supports these evil acts are evil themselves....

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has released its 2008-2009 predation management summary showing that moose and caribou herds in six predator control areas have increased: The agency points to two areas in particular as examples of where the program is showing strong results: the Nelchina Basin area and the southern Alaska Peninsula. The program is getting substantive results in the McGrath area, where it began in December 2003. Last winter and spring, 28 wolves were killed in the McGrath area. Nineteen were taken under the program and nine were hunted and trapped. The agency said the moose population...

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U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled that the fall wolf hunts in Idaho and Montana can proceed, denying a legal effort by environmental groups to stop them. The Montana and Idaho wolf hunts will not irreparably harm wolf populations and may proceed, according to a ruling filed last night by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy. Molloy on Aug. 31 heard arguments from environmental groups seeking to halt the fall wolf hunts—the first of their kind in the lower 48—on the grounds that the killings would irreparably harm the species, which was on the Endangered Species List until just this...

U.S. Department of Agriculture officials shot and killed two wolves today that were linked to five attacks on livestock in the Keating Valley area of Baker County. The wolves were shot after nonlethal efforts failed to keep them from killing livestock again. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife then authorized Agriculture's Wildlife Services to kill the animals, one of which was wearing a tracking collar, from a fixed-wing aircraft. "It's unfortunate that we got to this step," Russ Morgan, wolf coordinator for Fish and Wildlife, said in a news release, "but these wolves continued to kill livestock despite our...

Wolves do better on some tests of logic than dogs, a new study found, revealing differences between the animals that scientists suspect result from dogs' domestication. In experiments, dogs followed human cues to perform certain tasks despite evidence they could see suggesting a different strategy would be smarter, while wolves made the more logical choice based on their observations. In fact, dogs' responses were similar to human infants, who also prioritize following the example of adult humans.

GRANTS PASS — A kill order was issued Tuesday for the first wolves caught killing livestock in Oregon since they began moving to the state. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy said extensive efforts were made to persuade the wolves to leave livestock alone in the Keating Valley of Baker County, but haven’t worked. The two wolves have killed 29 animals in five incidents, including last week, when three sheep and a pet goat were killed. Federal hunters have been given a permit to kill the pair, and the rancher has permission to shoot them to protect...

Hunters purchased nearly 2,600 wolf licenses Monday, the first day they went on sale in Montana. The sales occurred on the same day U.S. District Judge Mike Molloy of Missoula heard arguments from animal rights and environmental groups seeking to block hunts in Idaho and Montana. Idaho's hunt started Tuesday as Molloy took the arguments under consideration. the slower sales — compared to the 4,000 sold on the first day licenses were available in Idaho — might have been due to the uncertainty of the court decision. If the hunt is halted before the season starts, holders will be refunded...

Wolf specialist Ed Bangs, pictured collaring a gray wolf, says the species has fully recovered in the Northern Rocky Mountain states. (Full-size photo) Some tough love – including regulated hunting – is needed to carve a permanent niche for wolves reintroduced to the Northern Rocky Mountains, say leading wolf authorities in this region and beyond. Social and political factors of wolf management are as important as biology in wolf survival, they say.On the eve of the first gray wolf hunting seasons in six decades in Idaho and Montana, passions are flaring at both extremes. Environmental groups on Monday will argue for a court...

I had one heck of an experience this past Friday. I was walking into an area I spotted 5 bulls last weekend when wolves started howling, growling and snarling about 300 yds away in the timber below me. It was just getting light so, I hung out for a while hoping to get a look at the wolves. Nothing appeared so, thinking that there were probably no elk in this spot, I headed back to the truck. I unloaded the ATV and was headed to an area called the “Natural Corral” on Bald Ridge. About ½ mile down the dirt...

Radical environmentalists have occasionally argued that the life of one member of an endangered species is worth more than the life of one member of the human race. Judging by the money it is spending on the Mexican wolf reintroduction program, federal and state governments seem to agree with this extremist viewpoint. $400,000 per Wolf Since the Mexican wolf reintroduction program was launched more than a decade ago, millions of dollars have been spent by the United States, Arizona and New Mexico governments. The goal was to reestablish a target population of 100 wolves in the mountainous areas of southwestern...

Kathy Konen has lost guard dogs to wolves in the past, but nothing prepared the Dillon rancher for the killing of 120 buck sheep last week. "They were in the sagebrush, on the creek bottom - just all over the pasture," Konen said Thursday. "It's a terrible loss to our livestock program." Konen said they discovered the attack Aug. 16 while checking their sheep in the Rock Creek drainage of the Blacktail Mountains south of Dillon, where they pasture buck sheep in summer. She said they check their sheep every two or three days, so the attack was recent. She...

Idaho Department of Fish and Game Director Cal Groen sent letters offering up Idaho wolves to any state that wanted to manage them. So far, at least 20 states have rejected Idaho's pitch to trap and export some of its wolves. nobody wants them... In May, the federal government removed more than 1,300 wolves in Montana and Idaho from the endangered species list. Environmentalists have sued to restore federal oversight.

AIRBORNE: Hunts allowed with airplanes only when it's a biological emergencyWASHINGTON -- Alaska's predator control program to kill wolves, which drew renewed national scrutiny during former Gov. Sarah Palin's bid for vice president, is under attack in Congress. Two California Democrats have introduced legislation that would all but ban the practice of shooting wolves from airplanes to control their numbers. The legislation, introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. George Miller, would force Alaska game officials to declare a biological emergency that shows the imminent collapse of a species without the program. Even if the state could demonstrate such an...

Fifteen wolf packs have denned and produced pups in Wyoming outside Yellowstone National Park this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reported. The federal agency, which announced it is continuing to monitor reproduction, did not say in its assessment how many pups might have been born to each pack. Yellowstone packs are raising litters without any apparent deleterious effects... Trappers are also working the Union Pass area near Dubois, where a calf was killed ... Last week, a yearling steer was killed by wolves

For the fifth time in six years, the gray wolf last week was returned to the federal endangered species list after being removed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The move was prompted by a lawsuit filed by a number of groups, including The Humane Society of the United States and The Center for Biological Diversity. The organizations successfully argued that the USFWS must provide more opportunity for public comment before it can delist wolves in the Upper Midwest. The groups also contend the government needs to better document the potential effects a possible hunting season might have on...

Federal wildlife managers have decided to allow an endangered Mexican gray wolf that has been linked to four livestock killings to remain in the wild in southwestern New Mexico. Despite a policy that allows the agency to remove a wolf from the wild after three livestock kills in one year, Tuggle said in a memo to the coordinator of the Mexican gray wolf recovery program ... Tuggle requested in his memo that the recovery program's interagency field team continue to monitor the San Mateo pack and try to prevent any further livestock kills by the pack.

My personal politics aren't important here, since really my focus is the animals; loads of other blogs to look at for the more overtly political slant. I'm happy when smart and humane, pro-animal, pro-environment positions are taken by either or both Democrats and Republicans, Conservatives or Liberals, Libertarians, Greens, or aluminum-foil-hat-wearing folks concerned about the upcoming Martian invasion. But like anyone who cares about animals and the environment, no, I wasn't exactly thrilled by Sarah Palin as a candidate for vice president. (Unexpected, related sidebar: Senator McCain's wife, Cindy, was a member of my Board of Directors for several of...

The Wyoming Attorney General said Friday will file a lawsuit next Tuesday to challenge the recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's ruling that rejected the state's wolf management plan. "The Endangered Species Act requires listing and delisting decisions to be based on science," Bruce Salzburg told the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation at a symposium about the law in Casper. But the Fish and Wildlife Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Interior, decided in early March to leave the gray wolf in Wyoming on the endangered species list for political and public relations reasons... The Fish and Wildlife Service,...

Ranchers in the Lemhi Valley of Idaho have suffered increased losses from wolf depredation, as wolf numbers expand. Allen Bodenhamer, who raises cattle near Baker, ID lost three calves this past spring. At first he thought the kills were made by coyotes, then realized he was dealing with wolves. “When coyotes kill a calf they get hold of the back of the neck and basically strangle it. They usually don’t start eating on it while it is still alive. A wolf grabs it by the top of the back or just in front of the hips and is eating on...

BILLINGS, Mont. – Wolves in parts of the northern Rockies and the Great Lakes region come off the endangered species list on Monday, opening them to public hunts in some states for the first time in decades. Federal officials say the population of gray wolves in those areas has recovered and is large enough to survive on its own. The animals were listed as endangered in 1974, after they had been wiped out across the lower 48 states by hunting and government-sponsored poisoning.

In some states, they'll be open to public hunt for first time in decades: BILLINGS, Mont. - Wolves in parts of the Northern Rockies and the Great Lakes region come off the endangered species list on Monday, opening them to public hunts in some states for the first time in decades. Federal officials say the population of gray wolves in those areas has recovered and is large enough to survive on its own. The animals were listed as endangered in 1974, after they had been wiped out across the lower 48 states by hunting and government-sponsored poisoning.

Tala and Nakai are sister and brother, 5½ weeks old and adorable. The wolf pups from the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center in Divide made their first public appearance Thursday, starring in a wildlife exhibition at The Broadmoor, but Darlene Kobobel, their caretaker, is worried this will be an ugly spring for the pups' wild-born brethren. After years of debate, court cases and bureaucratic wrangling, on May 4 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is due to remove gray wolves from the endangered and threatened species list in Idaho, Montana and parts of Utah, Oregon and Washington. Wolves will remain...

A motion-detector camera has photographed two wolves killing lambs on a ranch in Eastern Oregon — the first documented wolf attack on livestock in Oregon since they started moving into the state in 1999.

You are probably already familiar with the "Defenders of Wildlife" and their hateful propaganda campaign against Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Alaskan wildlife policies and subsistence hunting. Now Alaskans, which are to a substantial part dependant on hunting, strike back with the Defenders of Wild Food. DefendersofWildFood.org is a national effort dedicated to educating people regarding the importance of wildlife to the culture and diet of Alaskans.Watch their video ad and make sure to check their website.Click on pic for video:http://defendersofwildfood.org/

Alaska's controversial program, designed to cull the state's wolf population, captured America's attention last year when detractors gleefully hung it around vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's neck as an example of, well, something. Unsportsmanlike conduct? Unladylike behavior? A taste for blood? No matter—the criticism gave Palin supporters another reason to shout "attagirl" to "give 'em hell" Sarah. What do urban and suburban folks in the lower 48 states know about life in the wilderness, anyway? Michael Goldfarb, Sen. John McCain's former campaign spokesperson, went so far as to call the program "political gold" for the plucky VP candidate.

The state has started shooting wolves from helicopters in Alaska's eastern interior hoping to turn around an unsuccessful aerial predator control program there.FAIRBANKS, Alaska — The state has started shooting wolves from helicopters in Alaska's eastern interior hoping to turn around an unsuccessful aerial predator control program there. The project has raised concerns among officials at nearby Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, where predator control is prohibited. Department of Fish and Game workers shot and killed about 30 wolves from a helicopter Saturday in the Fortymile area east of Tok. The focus area is the Fortymile Caribou Herd's calving grounds adjacent...

We knew Sarah Palin would be murder on wolves had she been elected, but we expected more of the Obama Administration and its political appointees. While we have had some strong pronouncements for animal protection from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and there are many signs that positive changes are afoot more broadly within the Obama Administration, we’ve got our very first dose of awful news from the newly installed leaders in the executive branch. On Friday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that his agency would proceed with the delisting of both the Great Lakes and Northern Rockies wolf populations. I...

ISLAND PARK – The wolves that have made the caldera and other Idaho places their home in recent years will be managed by the state of Idaho, despite environmentalist demands that wolves stay on the U. S. Threatened and Endangered Species List."We can do it better than the federal government ever will." — U. S. Sen. Jim Risch, Idaho. Listen to his comment here. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today (Friday, March 60 affirmed the decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove gray wolves from the list in Idaho, Montana, parts of Washington, Oregon and...

We went into the store and bought our groceries. Here is a list of what we bought: $ 8.99 —- 2 lbs Raisins $ 3.10 —- 2 boxes of Jiffy Blue berry Muffin mix $ 6.99 —- 1 bag generic cheerios $10.25 —- 3lb Coffee creamer $ 4.72 —- 8 packages unsweetened Koolaid $17.34 —- 6 cans of fruit cocktail $10.76 —- 4 cans vegetables (2 peas 2 beans) $13.35 —- 1 large jar of Mayo $ 6.45 —- 1 one pound box spaghetti noodles $10.35 —- 5 lbs white rice $13.40 —- 4 boxes of rice-a-roni $ 4.49 —-...

Ashley Judd is an idiot Ashley Judd has become an embarrassment to the state of Kentucky. If you have ever watched Jerry Springer or America's Dumbest Criminals, you realize how difficult that is to do. She has stopped drinking the cool aid and started eating the powder straight from the package. In September she declared that “a woman who votes for McCain-Palin is like a chicken voting for Colonel Saunders.” Now she is in an ad for a far left animal rights group protesting Governor Palin´s support for aerial wolf hunting. Ashley Judd seems to still be suffering from Palin...

I've always found history intriguing, but it's also useful for debunking myths. Even stories that are obscure are useful for highlighting certain facts or lost notions. I'm sick of seeing Sarah be smeared by all corners of liberal media. That's all I really have to say. This story about lobo the wolf is an interesting one, but the pictures are(of course) the part that's worth a thousand words.

Wolves killed 11 sheep and injured five more Thursday south of Two Dot, USDA Wildlife Services officials confirmed Friday. "It's quite gruesome," said Tonya Martin, the sheep rancher whose stock was raided. A wolf killed five sheep and injured another five last March on the Martin ranch on Big Elk Creek. Efforts to capture the wolf were unsuccessful. The Martins told officials that four wolves were seen in the area. An adjacent landowner also reported that their cattle had been run through a fence Thursday... Wolves in Montana are federally protected...

Unprecedented attacks of wolves on deer herds have been reported in the Izhemsky region of the Komi republic; sometimes, the dreaded beasts even venture into villages. Director of the "Izhemsky Deer Farm" Ivan Kanev says that every day, 23 deer farming brigades try to defend their livestock against wolf packs, but in vain. To date, the damage caused by wolves to the deer farm is more than one thousand animals. Full-grown wolves are not even afraid of venturing into villages. For instance, wolves have ripped apart 15 watch dogs to pieces in one settlement since beginning of the winter. Deer...

A female wolf from the Yellowstone region has roamed about 1,000 miles and is thought to be wandering Colorado's central mountains. State wildlife officials say a GPS collar on the 18-month-old gray wolf indicated her last known position was in Eagle County, about 120 miles west of Denver. This is at least the second time a Yellowstone-area wolf has to make it to Colorado. A female wolf wearing a radio collar was hit and killed by a vehicle on Interstate 70 near Idaho Springs in June 2004.

A national sportsmen’s political group has rallied to the defense of Gov. Sarah Palin and Alaska’s predator control program, drawing new attention to questions surrounding the program’s scientific underpinnings. In a letter to Palin, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance defends the state program as rigorously regulated and scientifically based. The group attacks a recent “public relations blitz” by Defenders of Wildlife as a publicity stunt, saying effective wildlife management requires that “emotional pleas not substitute for reasoned analysis.” The Sportsmen’s Alliance is a national political coalition of sporting groups, mostly local and regional groups. Eight organizations, including the Boone and Crockett...

The world owes many thanks to Ashley Judd, who so bravely stood up against that evil Governor Palin and her barbarous slaughter of innocent and kindly wolves. But as progressives we must do more than just expose badness, we must also propose solutions to the problems that cause such ill.

State officials say Idaho needs to be able to manage the wolf population through hunting to protect the state's big game animals.

Wolves exhibit surplus killing behavior. They kill every calf they find, even if they don't eat them.

It's not the first time Defenders of Wildlife has targeted Palin. Last fall, when Palin was John McCain's running mate, it ran ads in several states denouncing Palin and the predator control program, and raised more than $1 million. Judd had campaigned for President Barack Obama during the campaign.

Sarah Palin has hit back at actress Ashley Judd for her criticisms of the effort to pare back the Alaskan wolf population for the protection of caribou. Scoffing at advice from “far east coast politicians,” Palin reminded Judd and her Defense of Wildlife Action Fund that Alaskans relied on healthy caribou populations for food — especially in economically trying times. She also accused Judd of manufacturing outrage to stoke donations to her group: Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s support for aerial wolf-hunting has sparked a heated cross-country war of words between the governor and an environmental ad campaign fronted by the...

In a bit of genetic sleuthing, a team of researchers has determined that black wolves and coyotes in North America got their distinctive color from dogs that carried a gene mutation to the New World. The finding presents a rare instance in which a genetic mutation from a domesticated animal has benefited wild animals by enriching their genetic legacy, the scientists write in Thursdays Science Express, the online edition of the journal Science. Since black wolves are more common in forested areas than on the tundra, the researchers concluded that melanism the pigmentation that came from the mutation must give...

Did you know that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin promotes the brutal aerial killing of wolves? You didn't?Well, that's was actress Ashley Judd claims in a new ad for the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. Even worse, according to Judd, Palin is "casting aside science and championing the slaughter of wildlife"(Video at link)What's astounding here is that nowhere in the ad is the viewer apprised of why the wolves are being hunted, or the history beyond this policy. Instead, as graphic video rolls of a wolf being shot, Judd says, "Using a low-flying plane, they kill in winter when there is no...

You would think that if Ashley Judd and the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund were going to take on Sarah Palin that they would atleast have some facts and basic knowledge about the subject they are so upset about. What is it that they are so upset about? Aerial hunting of wolves, obviously.