A Project of Sage Steppe Wild
I wonder if this falls under Idaho’s new law that let’s people with animals shoot wolves if the wolves seem to be thinking bad thoughts about their livestock? It’s very irritating to me because there are just a handful of wolves in Eastern Idaho.
Idaho Fish and Game investigating shooting of two wolves in eastern Idaho. Idaho Statesman. David Kennard
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Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
Comments
Might just as well have the Keystone Kops investigate.
This is a typical comment made by those who are hundreds of miles away. The wolves are in our backyards. They are killing our pets right in front of us. You come and live here with just a “handful” of wolves. We are not just protecting our livestock, but our families and property. It is a sad day when the rights of some animal come before our Constitutional right to protect ourselves.
Curt,
It seems like everyone who has commented so far lives in Idaho. I live in Pocatello.
What pets have been killed right in front of you or us? Name one.
Who spoke of animal rights here?
What did this situation have to do with the “right to protect oneself?” Is your family really threatened? What property of yours is threatened.
Waiting for your reply.
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Note: it turns out that this fellow actually is a person who had a dog killed in the yard by wolves. My apologies for questioning you on this, Curt. You would have been legally justified to shoot the wolves. I doubt your family is threatened. Wolves attack dogs like they do coyotes. Last year 8 dogs were lost in Idaho. Wolves almost never attack people. There is just one case of a person being possibly killed and eaten by wild wolves — the “Saskatchewan incident.” Story. Ralph Maughan
Curt – I live in Central Idaho near Stanley. I’ve been in these mountains for nearly 30 years, coming from a remote area in Eastern Oregon before that — so I’m not someone commenting from “hundreds of miles away”. I see wolves nearly every day and have never felt threatened by them. Rather, wolves are the very reason I choose to live here.
My dog goes nearly every where I go. A couple of days ago we sat on a hillside, hidden in sagebrush a good distance away, and watched a wolf pack return to an elk kill. My fear that day was having a rock tumble off a cliff onto the highway as I drove back home, not of wolves.
This morning I stood on another section of that highway and yelled and clapped my hands to scare off three young wolves. who were unwisely wanting to visit in daylight hours, a road-killed elk.
The least of my worries with regards to animals is being harmed by wolves. Moose, black bear with young, pawing black angus bulls, and yellowjackets — these get my attention a bit.
I’m wondering where you live, what livestock you raise, and what pets you have lost to wolves and why that has happened. My dog is not allowed to run loose, unless I’m with him and then he’s always in sight. Nor is he ever tied outside and left alone. If that had to be the case, then I would build a kennel for him. Anyway, Bo is thriving living in the heart of wolf territory in Central Idaho.
Curt Stegelmeier hasn’t replied to me, but it turns out they did lose a dog to wolves. It cost $170 to put the dog down.
Story published April 11 in the Idaho Statesman. Three wolves attack dog in Ashton. “The wolves were shot at but managed to escape. The dog was later put down because of severe injuries.” Idaho Statesman.
According the the Statesman, the Stegelmeirers live 10 miles, plus a couple more, east of Ashton, that would appear to be in or on the edge of the greater Yellowstone (Teton area) forest.
Curt ,
I am more than one hundred miles away. However, I can see why you would be frightened if you had witnessed your pet being attacked. I am sorry for your loss.
I also feel that the wolves were following insticts with your dog. Not that that would provide you much comfort about your loss.
I can say that even if I had watched my pet (I did watch my puppy get mauled by teo larger dogs once-scarey) being attacked by wolves, I would not conclude that I were to be their next target. We are simply not on their menu.
There is documented evidence that wolf dens in the Hayden Valley have been stumbled upon by humans, and they were not attacked. There is no greater foe than a mother protecting her young. I know, I am a mother. So I don’t see that wolves are any real threat to people’s safety. They may predate on livestock, and kill the occasional pet… but so does parvo virus and other pets…
We have to take each case as an individual incident, and guage it accordingly. We can’t simply say all wolves are bad, anymore than we can say all people are.