Posted on 02/22/2025 7:11:18 AM PST by george76
The Lake County (Oregon) Board of Commissioners has declared a public safety and livestock emergency in the wake of livestock depredations by wolf OR158. It is, according to Commissioner Barry Shullanberger, one of the first times such a declaration has been made.
According to the declaration, OR158 is responsible for five confirmed calf kills and three probable kills in Lake County in less than 10 days. Efforts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal Plant Health Inspection Service to haze the wolf with a drone, which was ineffective. The declaration requests immediate assistance from Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek for intervention in removing the wolf and requests that the state direct the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to pursue a permit for the take of endangered species, as allowed under Title 50, Section 17 of federal code.
Lake County ranchers Tom and Elise Flynn run cattle with Tom’s father, and Elise operates a veterinary clinic on the ranch.
...
“We’ve heard of people having wolf issues, and you feel bad for them,” Elise said. “But until that happens to you, you don’t realize. It’s just insane, it’s uncomprehensible how our hands are tied over this and they’re taking away our basic human rights by not allowing us to take care of it and protect what’s ours.”
Flynn said she watched Colorado ranchers struggle with wolves released on the landscape, wolves she knew came from her state, before she had any experience ranching alongside the predators. Now, she said, she feels guilty that they’re just beginning to experience what has plagued other producers.
“This has been a nightmare for way too long,” she said.
...
STARTED IN JANUARY..
On Jan. 30, she said her husband spotted wolf tracks on the road to the cattle feeding grounds and observed wolf OR158 near a freshly killed calf with the cow bawling nearby. As he neared the wolf, coming within 50 yards, the wolf never spooked or ran off. Identifying the wolf as collared, he called ODFW for permission to shoot him.
He did not have a gun with him that day, something that turned out to be a blessing, she said.
ODFW, despite the evidence of the wolf kill, told him the wolf could not be shot, even if he observed him attacking another calf. Days later, Tom caught the same wolf attempting to kill another calf. The cow, frantic and tired, managed to fight off the wolf until Tom arrived and scared the wolf off.
“That’s his favorite cow now,” she said.
....
Flynn said the ODFW officials she has spoken to admit that the wolf is a problem and should be removed, but their hands are tied as wolves are federally protected and protected via state statute. ODFW also admitted they knew the wolf was in the area but didn’t alert producers. Officials confirmed wolf tracks within 100 yards of the Flynn’s home and veterinary clinic.
The Flynns ranch is on deeded and public lands, utilizing summer and spring grazing permits and calving close to home.
“They talk about compensation for those kills, but it’s more than the kills,” she said. “There are animals injured that aren’t documented as wolf damage, it’s the ones that get sick from stress, it’s the pasture that doesn’t get utilized because the cows won’t go to that corner because that’s where the wolves are, it’s secondary things like poor breed up.”
Flynn said she has veterinary clients who have experienced lower conception rates and lower weaning weights and higher percentages of dry cows who have struggled to pinpoint the source of the stress. It’s apparent, now, that wolf pressure is a possibility.
Another young ranching couple a few hours away in Brothers, Ore., have also struggled with OR158. The husband was actually a groomsman in the Flynn’s wedding, and they are good friends.
...
The Brothers-area ranchers utilized a number of non-lethal deterrents — playing a.m. radio at night, fladry and fox lights. Despite these efforts, that ranch lost cattle.
“You can’t say people haven’t tried non-lethal methods,” she said. “This wolf is an exception to their idea of natural wolf behavior.”
The Flynns, who have small children, were told the wolf could only be shot in self-defense.
“They’ve also drilled into us that it better be in the head or chest, we have to be able to really prove it was self-defense and it better be close range,” she said. “They’re made it clear they’re willing to investigate whether it was self-defense, and it makes me so mad when they’re agreeing this isn’t right.”
After killing two calves on Flynn’s operation, the ODFW reported the wolf left the area, but was reported by another rancher about an hour away after he ran OR158 out of his own cowherd. OR158 was also confirmed as responsible for an injured calf in Crook County on Jan. 14, ruled probable in the Nov. 21, 2024, depredation of a calf.
“Just because we don’t have him here, somebody does because he’s a problem,” she said. “It’s what he does — he kills livestock. It’s not his fault, he’s smart.”
MEETING COUNTY AND STATE OFFICIALS..
The Flynns met with ODFW department heads and representatives from Congressman Cliff Bentz’s, R-Ore., office. She said little was gained.
Lake County officials, however, have been more proactive, issuing the declaration and requesting state and federal assistance.
Commissioner Barry Shullanberger said he, too, watched the release of Oregon wolves in Colorado.
“I imagine Colorado has quite a bit of red, it’s just not in the right places,” he said.
He said he spoke to Tom Flynn about the wolf attacks on the ranch.
“I asked him how long the wolf stuck around once he pulled up to the cow and killed the tractor, and he said 40 minutes,” he said. “He told me it sat on its butt and wasn’t even looking at him, he was looking out at other things, where it was going to go next.”
The next place the wolf went, with Tom following in the tractor, was where he had just fed a line of hay and pairs were eating, walking right through the cattle, never even looking back at the tractor.
Not unlike Colorado, he said Oregon’s politics are dominated by the Democratic-dominated urban strongholds like Portland, Salem, Eugene and other major population centers. Three hours from a freeway, Lake County is home to some of Oregon’s largest cattle operations. Shullanberger said Lake County is about 8,300 square miles with about the same population, of one per square mile, give or take. The county was once home to a thriving timber industry and five sawmills, where only one now remains after spotted owl regulations came about during the Bill Clinton administration. Without the timber business, agriculture remains the major economic driver — cattle and alfalfa hay — are boons for the county and wildfire has become a threat. After using hounds to hunt mountain lions was outlawed along with disallowing the baiting of bears, he said mountain lion and bear populations have exploded in the area. And now, wolves.
Wolves, he said, were originally located in three counties in northeast Oregon, and wolves are now prominent in 19 counties. A lack of funding for depredation compensation and for non-lethal deterrents is a constant struggle, he said.
Shullanberger said OR158 originated in Baker County in northeast Oregon and came south by himself seeking territory. That took him to Modoc County, California, with a stop in Brothers where he killed calves and was not afraid of multiple non-lethal deterrents, including drones. He returned to Lake County, where he killed calves on Flynn’s ranch and then traveled west to Klamath County where he reportedly killed a calf.
“Drones don’t have a real long battery life,” he said. “Apparently, they found the wolf, but they had already been flying the drone for a while. They hazed him away from the cows about a mile, but the battery was going down, so they had to return the drone. Well, he just turned around and came right back and killed a calf. Pretty frustrating.”
Shullanberger said the declaration was issued as an attempt to protect both generational ranches and the young kids being raised on those ranches. The boldness of OR158 and his habituation to people paired with prints near the Flynn home and corrals raises alarms.
“Even though it’s rare for a wolf to attack humans, or so I’m told, we don’t want to take that chance,” he said. “The other thing we experience is U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife aren’t in the PR business, letting people know where these wolves are.”
He said the commissioners are seeing the tension, stress, and exhaustion being experienced by area ranchers and they want to bring the situation to the attention of the state and federal agencies. That, he said, doesn’t come without its challenges. Kessina Lee, a Biden-era appointment, is the Oregon state supervisor for USFWS.
“It would be up to her to help remove this wolf, but we issued the declaration to get the governor’s office involved so they can more quickly work with federal partners to see if we can get a resolution” he said. “In my call yesterday to the governor’s office, they assured me they are working with federal partners. We have to give them that space and let them do their job.”
Put a bounty on the wolf. Also, defense is OK against destruction of livestock. Get those woke bureaucrats out and pass some common sense laws.
And stop the transplanting where you "think" they should be.
Just like the dumb a** climate "scientists" who think they know what the temperature of the earth should be....
SSS
Somebody needs to post that article to X and truth social, targeting whoever the new head of Interior and USFS.
The local Obama holdover should be fired for inefficiency in job performornce.
Make an example of her.
Declare yourself a cow.
Next, do self defense.
I would agree, but I’m pretty sure the released wolves have GPS trackers.
I can’t wait for the environmental nutjobs to reintroduce grizzlies in my part of the woods. The same applies to wolves as much as grizzlies. The only good wolf is a dead wolf. Same for commies.
"[they]...requested immediate assistance from Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek for intervention in removing the wolf"
LOLOL...yeah, they will get a real sympathetic ear from Kotek. She is a Democrat and she runs a progressive agenda with a focus on housing, labor rights, and social equity. She could not care less about ranchers in her state.
"Flynn said the ODFW officials she has spoken to admit that the wolf is a problem and should be removed, but their hands are tied as wolves are federally protected and protected via state statute."
"Our hands are tied." That's the age-old government response when they don't want to do something. You get nothing but excuses from government agents who point to statutes and say "our hands are tied."
I never realized the secondary effects of wolves on cattle: cows get sick from stress, pastures don't get utilized because the cows won’t go to that corner because that’s where the wolves are, poor breed up.
And the non-lethal deterrents! What a joke. Playing AM radio at night, fladry (a rope mounted along the top of a fence, from which are suspended strips of fabric or colored flags, that will flap in a breeze. They are intended to deter wolves from crossing the line), and fox lights (night predator deterrent control light with flashing LEDs). It reminds me of those stupid Norwegian woman doing their "dance" to stop muslim men from raping them.
I suppose there are things worse than being a cattleman losing cows to wolves. You could be a farmer and have the feds blast irrigation and flood control dams to smithereens causing you to lose your water.
Donkeys. They’ll kill any wolf or coyote that comes around.
They can contact the BLM office in NW AZ and get information on when the roundup is and adopt Donkeys.
As for attacks on human being rare? Thats a GD lie. Ive been stalked by Timber Wolves several times and a fellow forester had to get up a tree after a pack went after him.
These freaks will lie through their teeth for their beliefs.
Thanks
Kill the wolf. Remove the tracker and throw it in the nearest river.
Poor thing must have drowned.
That right there was the problem.
You are correct people like you and I that live in wolf country.
Know that they are not fuzzy furry forest critters just looking for you to pet them.
It is a rare day that I do not found wolf tracks with in few hundred yards of my house.
Some times a lot closer.
Big city leftists hate family farmers and family ranchers / they think food comes from a box or a can from a store.
Ted Turner, Jane Goodall, Bill Gates.. want to kill billions of people / kulaks that Stalin and Lenin hated for taking care of their families.
WEF Member: 90% Population Reduction Would Solve Globalists’ ‘Problems’. ~anthropologist Jane Goodall,
https://slaynews.com/news/wef-member-90-population-reduction-solve-globalists-problems/
That is the secondary problem. The primary problem is state and federal laws that make ODFW controls possible.
And the upstream problem from that is the progressive urbanite who pushes for these laws without a care in the world for the people who produce their food.
SSS
Oregon is run by lunatics, their normal people are most to be pitied, God help the poor suffering normal MAGA smucks.
doge the data that underlies the endangered designations
check the math
imo it will be found to be 100 % fraudulent.
ALL OF IT
and if that is found to be falsified fed data
arrest and prosecute all those who knowingly falsified fed data
and bar them from any future fed employment no more promotions for mismanagement and or felonies .....spit
Everywhere they try this it is a disaster. The wolves take the easy prey, domesticated animals. Why hunt wild ones?
Idiots!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.