Cow Surrounded By Wolves

For those of you who may have seen the video on Ag Information’s FaceBook page of 11 wolves circling and taking turns at an Angus Cow — and perhaps wondered what the end results were. Today I have the rest of the story.
I spoke with Eastern Oregon Rancher Terrill Thomas who runs his cows about 9 miles from Milton-Freewater in the foot hills of the Blue Mountains. It was his cow that stood up the wolves and took after them when they approached her. She was lame and he shares what he found when he approached her later that day
Thomas: “I could get about within 40 feet of her and I could see with the binoculars that her right hock was swollen. But I can’t tell if it is the stifle on both legs, or in back or what is going on. It isn’t right — she is definitely crippled.”
He gave the possible reason that she survived the wolves around her — other than her ornery attitude — was that a few recent remains of an cow elk were found in the same field that she was in that same day.
Since 2010 the Walla Walla pack of wolves has run in the same area as his cow herd and Thomas says he has tried bells on his cows, box lights, as well as range riders and yet he has reported at least 15 cattle carcasses to ODFW and has yet to have even one confirmed.
Currently none of the Walla Walla pack are collared and yet another challenge Thomas says
Thomas: “Evidently, human presence is no longer not a factor with them, or they are getting accustom to having humans around.”