Non Lethal Wolf Control

"We lost our first two calves in 1996." "I have witnessed it 40 times. I'm sick of it. These calves die because they have been ran to total exhaustion. Then they go down. They'll hit a mud hole. They'll do something and go down. Then the wolves will chew on them until there is enough trauma. They leave but there is enough trauma left that releases toxins that shuts down the kidneys and the internal organs and that's what they die from. They do not ever kill the animal by any humane means known to man. It must take hours for these calves to die." That's rancher Bill Davis Davis who, along with other livestock ranchers recently met with USDA -APHIS officials in the west central mountains of Idaho for discussion and updates. I covered that story but just received a note from a member of our Ag Information Network of the West team pointing out an article in Beef Magazine asking the question "Do non-lethal control methods reduce wolf depredation?" Another rancher at the meeting, Casey Anderson from Ox Bow Ranch in Bear, Idaho pointed out that it's a matter of scale whether or not non-lethal control methods can hinder wolf depredation. He said some non-lethal strategies may work on a small ranch if you can be out with your animals regularly, or can put up special fencing or electrified flagging to keep wolves out of pastures. "It boils down to how many wolves you have—whether just one or two passing through occasionally or a resident pack feeding their pups." The latter case is more daunting and the results ain't pretty.