You
There's been a wolf, a wolf introduction in Yellowstone that has grown
exponentially and now these wolves have moved out of Yellowstone across Montana
and Idaho and now they're here at your doorstep. There's been quite a lot of
wolf activity for the last couple years. The Amalha pack is established right in
the heart of where I turn out in the summer. Turnout time used to be a time
of jubilation where we were excited and relaxed because we kept these babies
alive for as long as we did and we got to turn out on grass, quit feeding
expensive hay and now it's a time where there's quite a lot of anxiety with
them going out. I still look forward to turnout but I don't look forward to
turning these guys out with wolves. It's a very difficult situation right now as
they come in because it's new to us, it's new to the ranchers, it's new to the
wildlife people here in Oregon as to what to expect and this hopefully
will again give us factual information to let us get rid of the
motion in the politics and work on some solutions that might help the economics
as well as the fear and the concern and the problems that wolves are
bringing to the cattle industry. Well last year it was kind of interesting we
got the first GPS map from the wolves ODF and W said well they're not on you
too much and when we look where that wolf had traveled he had been almost in
my territory the whole time.
been sheriff in this county 11 years. Did you ever think you were gonna have wolves
in your backyard? No not at all. They kind of a surprise? Yeah it has been a
surprise. I brought these guys out on Monday today Saturday somebody's been
out here nearly every day kind of keeping an eye on things just about
thought everything was okay and I just happened to find a hind leg a couple
hundred yards from my pickup so anyway I called Fred Steen local sheriff
my life services hiked around here for about an hour and found the ribcage we
haven't found anything else yet.
I'm Mark Dawson the Lisa's pastor here from Guy in Hawaii we had a non-confirmed
wolf kill out here last year the wolves were coming through here off and on all
winter when I was wintering out here this morning the government traffic
called said he had some signals of them we got out here before the morning was
over we had eight of them spotted we lucked out this morning no kills but
they're still hanging around so we're gonna camp here we'll camp here two or
three times a week hopefully that kind of keeps them at large. There was two
black wolves and a gray wolf there this morning I was glassman he come down we
lost sight of him he hit the draw and we thought we'd see him go cross but
apparently he went on down the draw but yeah he come pretty close to where that
kill was last year yes this is what you call kind of really about losing your
livelihood your paycheck so you're kind of standing out here watching hoping it
works. They're walking on eggshells they put more time and effort and money
into checking on their herds fuels ridiculous you know they cost it costs
more money to get into a vehicle to go out and check you know three times or
four times a day where they were checking maybe once every two days in an
area and it just puts a lot more stress on trying to run a business trying to
run an operation. My name is Carl Patton it's May 4th and we're at the site of
where I had a found a calf kill this morning this would be my third kill two
pregnant cows in February and now calf born the first of March. I had no clue as
a wolf my first thought was come over here and look at it was there a sick
calf although I'm in them every day I didn't see a sick calf but I come over
here and I could not see enough to I cut into the legs and found trauma on the
bone is when I went up and called Wildlife Services. We've got to be
careful about you know not saying everything that dies out in nature is a
wolf kill this definitely was killed. The agreement and the understanding we
have with our local producers right now is that if there is an incident if
there's a depredation that occurs or that they believe is has occurred or some
suspicious issue with their livestock they'll notify me I notify a Wildlife
Services and we respond and we treat it I treat it as a crime scene. Most of what
we've had occur in the last year and a half has been on private property
destruction of personal property.
If I do do something I become an enemy in the very country I love and serve well
how in the hell did I get here we try to raise our families in a responsible way
we have a commitment to our neighbors and commuter what what how do you wind up
here an enemy of the country you love how in the hell did that happen you know
30 years of environmentalism look at the situation they've got the countries in
I'm just amazed. I went and got my permit the other day and I've read through the
documents briefly in my business in law enforcement we don't have those kind of
constraints on dealing with people that are trying to kill us constraints that
they put on on that scenario for an animal there is no justification for it
does not make any sense we know that they kill cattle we know that they kill
things and eat them so if the wolf is standing in your pasture sniffing noses
with your 200 pound calf I doubt seriously he's there to welcome him to the
neighborhood. My name is David Schaefer I'm a veterinarian I've been here in
Enterprise Oregon for about 23 years last week I was called out to a ranch to
look at a bull that was a potential wolf attack on a rival I found a approximately
1800 pound bull down on his side with a very swollen limb the bull was in shock
and was unable to rise he could kind of raise his head but he was he'd been on
the ground for a while and paddling and was unable to get up found that his
right foreleg his forearm was very swollen found three horizontal scratch
marks going across the limb we treated the bull with IV fluids some
inner peritoneal fluids and then we went ahead and rolled him over at the time
my clinical impression was that there was some kind of muscle trauma to this
bull we finished treating the bull and you know long and short it was he end
up dying well as I was looking at things I didn't think it looked like a fight it
didn't look like it dropped in a hole to me and it didn't look like the wire in
circling it you know I mean there was some kind of muscle trauma to me it was
what I was seeing with wounds on two different sides were consistent with
something grabbing and pulling you've got scratch marks and you've got muscle
trauma on two different sides of the leg and I'm just saying it's very
compatible with with the fact that it could have been a wolf that bit this
animal if we've got wolves running out in the air we know that wolves are present
and if we have livestock producers losing animals then don't we owe it to
those producers to sit down and have somebody trained in pathology to know
that to make the best shot at whether this person's going to get reimbursed
for losing his coward your problem in this whole thing and that is the
individuals that are supposed to make sure our wolf population increases are
the same individuals that have the responsibility to calling us a wolf
or not that's a conflict of interest
well is he already done
so we've decided it's possible unknown we're not able to confirm it it's
possible that there could have been wolves around here that chased it and
caused it to tear that muscle that that torn muscle is by far the most severe
injury on the cow correct correct I mean the cause of death we know is from the
infection but the cause of the infection and over the cause of the torn muscle
that's harder to do but we're not able to find any teeth marks associated with
that torn muscle we're not able to find anything on the skin of the hide inside
or outside associated with that torn muscle we have never in 32 years lost
the bull yeah when you see him one day in fact we're up here this usually this
time of night before we're riding out everything's fine and the next days got
that how would you explain that well whether he got it from wolves or whether
he got it from any other cause what other cause would you think that might be it
could be a million things there's a not a million not a million you tell me but
I've been running cattle here for 32 years you explain to me what would cause
that brush brush log you know you got stuck in there you know I'm saying like
he couldn't see or something well you're fishing oh no I don't know Rob Lynn you
are fishing you know I have 32 years experience I've been around cattle and
horses and dogs my whole life and you're trying to tell me now that that
evening he's fine the next day he's got that kind of trauma we've got cows that
are charging the horses we can hardly use our dogs anymore and you're telling me
that all of a sudden this year gee all these strange things are happening the
wolves have nothing to do with it no I don't I don't agree with a bunch of
baloney and you guys know it and and dog on it I'm not gonna put up with this a
hell of a lot longer why did the vet say it was consistent in with with with dog
right absolutely can completely consistent when he asked you to stick
your finger and feel the muscle and he'd explain it you turn them down and you
should have stuck it in there and felt it oh no you can feel it now it's still
right there it's nothing changed it's still there what are you guys asking
from us what do you want to accept that we can't find bite marks and prove that
that's a and the thing is you can't you can't discount it either no issue but
this bull itself right here I can't confirm that so a four-year-old bull
just all of a sudden that just ran into a log or a rock or something and he was
so careless that he just of all the bulls we've had all the years that the
hundred and we've never had and all of a sudden and I have a calf with a broke
leg in the same damn spot and you're trying to tell me that this is just a
natural occurrence and we don't know it's also possible that wolves were
involved with this but I can't see evidence on the bull to say that for
sure that's why I you know you can keep your damn money I don't care about the
money but I do care about my cattle and this is my land this 2400 acres here we
paid for I've served my country I've done all the things that were required and
my society has asked me to do and now all of a sudden there's a new game in
town and I and I'm gonna have to do this this is the way it's gonna be right
so no doubt you have had significant loss
you
