Oregon Wolves Kill Again!

Oregon Wolves

Joseph,OR – 2 full grown cows in a week have been killed by wolves in Eastern Oregon's Imnaha wolf pack.  Both kills were within one week on the same ranch as these wolves are becoming bolder by the day. 

"We are seeing a significant change in their behavior – they are going after larger animals," Michelle Dennehy, spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Salem, said today. 


Which begs the questions if they are becoming more daring and going after bigger game what is to stop them from pursuing a small child
Last year, Imnaha pack wolves generally restricted their prey to small calves, and most of their activities occurred during the spring. Now, the pack appears to be shifting to larger yearlings and fully grown cattle, and are killing later into the winter. 

The department confirmed Tuesday that a yearling heifer was found dead on private land. The latest adult cow was found on the same ranch and probably died Tuesday morning or Monday night, said Dennehy. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's stance is that the lethal removal of "problem" wolves that are killing ranchers' cattle is appropriate, she said. A "kill order" was issued for the Imnaha pack's alpha male and a younger wolf, but was blocked by a lawsuit. 

Dennehy said ODFW has issued "caught in the act" permits to 33 ranchers, permitting them to shoot and kill wolves that are seen biting, wounding or killing livestock. However, the permit language is specific, and ranchers cannot shoot a wolf unless they see it in the midst of an attack, she said. Since wolves typically hunt at night, it's unlikely that a rancher would catch one in the act of attacking livestock, she said. 


This is a win for livestock and wildlife advocates as ranchers will be able to protect their stock and eliminate at least some of these predators.

Wolf Warning to Oregon!

Western Idaho Gray Wolf

Wolf research on Idaho ranch shows wolves are not as far off as we think. The 3 year study shows that wolves in the Snake river area of Oregon are moving just yards from cattle and other live stock as well as within walking distance of houses. 

Here is a excerpt: "It showed the wolf came into proximity of all 10 collared cows at one time or another. The wolf came within about 500 yards of all 10 on 784 occasions. It came within 100 yards on 54 occasions, according to information Anderson provided. On several occasions, the wolf and collared cattle were basically in the same spot, according to his records.

Anderson's presentation also highlights how the collared wolf came within 500 yards of homes around the ranch on 307 occasions, and lingered a full day within 300 yards of a ranch lodge.

"The wolf stayed there all day," Anderson said, pointing to an aerial photo of the site. "And that's a well-traveled country road right there. It actually came down and we had wolf manure in the garden."

full article @eastoregonian

These statistics are helping to make the case that wolves are more daring and closer than we think.  Hopefully it doesn't take a death to prove that wolves are a real threat to humans as well as livestock and game.

Wolves in Oregon on the move to Southern Oregon

The OR-7 wolf that has been track from upper-eastern Oregon has made his way down to the Crater Lake area of Southern Oregon.  The OR-7 wolf had found an elk herd and a yearling calf that it had been feeding on the last couple of days. In the Lolo area of Idaho the Elk population has been cut drastically by the introduction of wolves over the past several years.  Oregonian Article

The ODFW estimates there to be 24 known wolves in Oregon and only 1 in the Cascade mountains.  I and many others feel this number is grossly understated and that Oregon's population of gray wolves is currently in the 100's.  As for the assertion that  there is only one wolf in the Cascades, I personally have seen a wolf in the cascades while hunting 5 years ago.  I have also talked with many others who have seen them in the Diamond lake area.  One gentlemen that I talked with got an Elk down at sunset, camped out and heard howls all around his camp at night and found wolf tracks everywhere the next morning.

I only think our wolf problem in Oregon has just begun, we need to take a cue from Idaho and start controlling these predators now before our Elk and Deer populations are depleted!

Video of wolves attacking humans in Alaska!

So you think wolves are afraid of humans, just ask these ladies how afraid they are!

Let the wolf hunt begin! Judge stays injunction to stop wolf hunting season!

SEATTLE: Bow-and-arrow hunters already have shot 17 of Montana's once-threatened wolf population since a controversial hunt started at the beginning of September, while 60 wolves have been killed in neighbouring Idaho.

Now, big game rifle-hunting season is about to start, bringing thousands of hunters into the mountains at a time when early snowfall will make wolves much easier to spot and chase.

Conservation groups went to court this week seeking an emergency injunction to block the hunts until a federal appeals court can decide whether they're legal to begin with.  ''General rifle season is about to start in Montana; it just started in Idaho. About 37,000 people now have wolf-hunting permits, and they're going to be going with high-powered rifles and long-range scopes after a little more than a thousand wolves,'' Michael Garrity, executive director of Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said in an interview.

He said a coalition of groups, including Friends of the Clearwater and WildEarth Guardians, had asked the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to rule on an emergency order, pending a hearing next month on claims that the fast-track federal legislation that authorised the hunts is illegal.

The court denied the request for an immediate stop, ruling the ''motion for injunction pending appeal will be considered at the time of oral argument on November 8, 2011''.   ''With the snow about to fly … the very survival of Northern Rocky Mountain wolves may be at stake,'' Wendy Keefover of WildEarth Guardians said in a statement.

There are about 1400 wolves in the two states, a number the US Fish and Wildlife Service concluded is adequate to allow a hunt and still sustain the population.

Many residents of Idaho and Montana say the predator numbers have become so large while wolves were protected under the Endangered Species Act that livestock are threatened and herds of game animals such as elk are declining.

After repeated delays in getting federal wolf protections lifted, federal politicians from Idaho and Montana in August attached a rider to the must-pass federal budget bill that eliminated protections and cleared the way for the hunts.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Montana upheld the wolf delisting, but conservationists argued he was bound by precedent and did so only reluctantly.

''Inserting environmental policy changes into appropriations bills may be politically expedient, but it transgresses the process envisioned by the Constitution by avoiding the very debate on issues of political importance said to provide legitimacy,'' Molloy wrote.

''Policy changes of questionable political viability, such as occurred here, can be forced using insider tactics without debate by attaching riders to legislation that must be passed.''

Oregon Ranchers to be compensated for wolves killing livestock

Calf killed by wolf in Eastern Oregon

SALEM - The Oregon Senate Friday passes Oregon's wolf coexistence and livestock 
compensation program. With unanimous support of the Legislature and a strong endorsement from Gov. John Kitzhaber, this program will help ensure that ranchers have incentives to do the right thing for livestock and wolves. The new program will compensate them for livestock lost to wolves, but only if they demonstrate that they have taken common-sense steps to minimize their losses. 

The Canadian gray wolf if an invasive species that has been reintroduced into Oregon 2 years ago.   These wolves have been responsible for killing several cows and many sheep in the Eastern Oregon area.  Not to mention all the Elk and deer these wolves have killed in the past several years.  There have been 5 reported cases of cattle being killed by a pack of wolves in Oregon this year.

State wildlife managers helped landowners get rid of five cattle bone piles this year, and many ranchers have taken it upon themselves to remove carcasses during the winter and spring. Wolves are attracted to easy meals such as this. 


Organizations have urged ranchers to add a range rider or a team of guard dogs and penning animals in at night, which would not be cost effective for any rancher.  They say it's a small price to pay to protect livestock and secure a better future for wolves in Oregon.  


The Defenders of Wildlife organization says "Oregon has a unique opportunity to duplicate what's been accomplished in Idaho on a much bigger scale. State wildlife managers, forward-thinking ranchers and various conservation groups have already been paving the way toward coexistence. We can and should continue to find better ways to share the landscape with wolves."


Essentially we have people who don't have to live with wolves telling the people that do, that they need to deal with it.  I would like to trap a couple of wolves and let them loose in their neighborhood and see if they would defend keeping them around!

Wolves killing cattle in Eastern Oregon (video)

It is a wonder they let these killers back in the State of Oregon. The reason wolves were killed off last century was that they were killing not only elk and deer but also livestock.