Another one bites the dust

[singleshot]

Federal wildlife officials killed a female Mexican Gray Wolf, last Wednesday night after she hung around a ranch house in western New Mexico, even spending time on the front porch.

Members of the Interagency Field Team tried to dart the wolf, tranquilize her and move her to another area, said Tom Buckley, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman. But those efforts failed and officials shot the wolf, which had mated with a dog and had puppies earlier this year.

The events leading to the latest shooting began Tuesday afternoon, December 13th, when Crystal Diamond and her two young daughters, ages 2 and 3, returned home to the Beaverhead Ranch. In a written statement, Diamond said she was unloading her pickup truck after several days away from her kids, and the dogs were playing in the yard.

Then a neighbor came speeding up the driveway, shouting out the window, she wrote.

“He yelled for me to take the girls inside while pointing to the dogs who were roughhousing with a collared wolf no farther than 35-feet from my 2-year-old daughter. I grabbed my girls and ran inside, slamming the door behind us.”

The neighbor fired a rifle to scare the wolf away, and Diamond locked her dogs and children inside, she wrote. But after the sun set, the wolf came back to the house.

Through the night, Diamond could see the wolf outside and even pressed its nose against a window. Tracks showed the wolf had been walking around the porch and yard.

Forest Service officials came to the ranch the next day and that evening shot and killed the wolf about 150-yards from her house.

[Couzer]

Good thing they put her down! To close of a call!

[.270]

poor thing. Lark.

[DesertBull]

But those efforts failed and officials shot the wolf, which had mated with a dog and had puppies earlier this year.

 

I'm surprised they admitted that.

[billrquimby]

Makes me wonder if the article is correct and the wolf was shot by "Forest Service officials." The Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service, and not the Agriculture Department's Forest Service, has jurisdiction on endangered species, which means those Forest Service "officials" could be in deeeeep doo-doo if the article is correct.

 

Bill Quimby

[Arizona Griz]

poor thing. Lark.

 

 

I know what you mean.

 

It is a shame it could not be relocated.

[Coach]

Sounds like it was pretty domesticated from the get go. It was obviously more comfortable playing house pet than pretending to be a true "wolf" in the sense that the people re-inroducing the "wild" wolf would like us to imagine.

 

About 10 years ago, I was lucky enough to move from the city back to the White Mountains. Immediately our family came to adopt (by our own reckoning) a couple of coyotes, we named Farmer and Fuzzy. Don't blame me for the naming, that was strictly the kids' choice. Eventually, a longer-legged dog showed up, turned out to be a young, male adolescent wolf. At first, I discounted the sightings, but it was later confirmed he was part of a pack released around Sunrise Lake and rather than seek out other wolves, he headed to town looking for an easy meal.

 

While I didn't feel threatened by this one, young wolf showing up in my back yard, I did realize that the wolf re-introduction program could not succeed. This effort to bring back wild wolves to the White Mountains was like trying to transplant bear or javelina. Once they get the smell of human occupants, they will be drawn to it.

[.270]

It got relocated all right. To the landfill. Merry Christmas. Kill the wolves. Hohoho. Lark.

[bojangles]

ooooh, ooooh, i want the fur!!!!