Oregon's Department of Fish & Wildlife's annual
wolf report is only a few days old and already ranchers are calling for lethal controls--a euphimism for shooting on sight--an endangered species that did not live in the state just a decade ago. The first pack was documented in 2009. The last known Oregon wolf before that was killed in 1946 by a bounty hunter. The Oregon Cattlemen Association wants the wolf delisted in Oregon, and a spokesperson said the state has allowed the preditor to "grow unchecked". State biologists found 77 wolves compared to 64 last year. For the first time since the 1940's there is a pack in the southern Cascades thanks to the intrepid "OR-7" that crossed the state to settle in the Rogue River region
[photo]. Most wolves live in the mountainous northeast corner of the state. Conservationists say the state should not rush to lift protections just because there has been a modest increase in the number of wolves and not a full recovery. Pressure to due so is political and not based on science conservationists argue.
Oregon now has nine packs with eight of those producing pups
[photo]. Member of four of those packs attacked livestock in 2014 according to the report. There were 11 confirmed cases of wolf attacks in 2014 down from 13 in 2013. The number of livestock killed increased sharply however due to an increased number of sheep kills. Thirty sheep were lost in 2014 compared to six sheep in 2013. Only three cows were killed last year. Oregon has a compensation fund to reimburse ranchers for livestock losses. The fund paid out $8,482 for dead stock, most of it to ranchers in Willowa County and $33,878 for missing livestock, more than half of that going to Baker County. Even though the state spent over hundred thousand dollars on conflict prevention, more can be done to help ranchers reduce their losses such as training them in the use of guard dogs to accompany stock when grazing in wolf pack territory. Claims of wolf kills also need to be carefully verified by state officials to discourage fraudulent claims by ranchers in destressed circumstances or inflation of claims for political purposes.
