Wolf Attack

Wolf Attack. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

Wolves have killed seven sheep and attacked a cow in Oregon’s Umatilla county. The two incidents were separate attacks. Rancher Mark Lane talks about the wolf attack on his cow.

LANE: She’s one of the youngest ones in my herd. She’s three-years old. She’s bred with her second calf so she weighs, She is the smallest one in the herd but she’s back home. I’m doctoring her and trying to heal her up.

Lane doesn’t live near the pasture.

LANE: It just happens my father-in-law, who lives within seven miles of the pasture and he goes up and checks them for me during the week. He checked them on Sunday the 8th and on Wednesday the 11th he called me and told me there was about a 10-inch round chunk out of the back of the cow.

He says he then reported the attack to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife who came out to verify the attack. Lane is not sure yet if the cow will live and says if she does:

LANE: If she makes it, what kind of cow is she going to be. Being that young and attacked will she breed back and then if she won’t, if I go and sell her at an auction after she’s healed up and healthy but she’s going to have all those scars, they’re not going to pay me what she is worth. You’re kind of stuck in a hard spot. You can’t keep her because she won’t breed or can’t breed and you go to sell her you’re not really going to get hardly anything for her but you can’t afford to keep her around.

Lane does say he is reaching out to state and federal officials but says there are a lot of hoops to go through to get any kind of compensation but he still working on it.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.