Close encounter raises concerns about wolves

Idaho Press-Tribune ^ | 6/4/06 | Scott Richards

[tgusa]

GRANGEVILLE — Hello. My name is Scott Richards. I have lived in Grangeville for the last 17 years. I have enjoyed training my hunting dogs for the past 34 years.

To do this it takes a great deal of love for your dogs and for the great outdoors. I have always prided myself in the manner of which I train my dogs and take care of them. When I choose a new pup, he or she spends the first 6 months in my house. He or she is loved and a bond is there forever. I do not believe there are bad dogs, just inexperienced owners. I have spent the last four years trying to introduce this sport to as many young people as I can. My photo albums are full of pictures with children sitting under a tree with the dogs, telling them they did a good job.

[glorgau]

I feel sorry that he lost his dogs but, he and his dogs were hunting and so were the wolves.

Yeah, and then he goes after a wolf with a stick, gets jumped and gets his dog (who he was ostensibly "saving") killed to save himself. He was having all kinds of fun lording it over whatever the heck his dogs wanted to chase down, and then gets upset during the wake-up call. What a maroon.

[thinkthenpost]

Just that they have greatly expanded their range, basically coast to coast now, proximity makes for familiarity, makes for boldness. I think your kitties and puppies have more to worry about than your kids. Rabies shots aren't fun even if they don't have to be given in the stomach anymore (I think) so reinforce wild animals no petting, or even approaching.

[ahayes]

I think a lot of people are just delusional about nature and "the wild", and think their dogs will be "free" running around in the country. People treat cats awfully too. Every year I get emails through my university department asking if anyone can take in a cat that just got abandoned outside by someone who moved away. They think that the cat can hunt for food and that someone else will feed it, but they don't consider cars, dogs, and all of the diseases that they can get. If free-breeding cats have an average of five kittens per litter and produce several litters in their life, it's obvious that most have to die young or we'd be up to our eyeballs in cats. Our younger cat was rescued as a kitten from a parking lot--fortunately he came begging for food or he would have soon died, he was 50% underweight.

Wild animals can be subject to that kind of attrition and I find it unpleasant but tolerable, but for domestic animals we have already intervene in their fate and I think we have the responsibility to use more humane methods of population control.

[Smittie]

I haven't decided yet. If we're going just by number of fatalities domestic dogs should be exterminated first--average over a dozen kills a year, and many more nonfatal attacks.

That's true and the poodle used to be the # 1 dog in the number of dog-bites to humans.

What would you do if you were a wolf & someone opened up the equivalent of McDonald's next door? You'd eat McCalves.

[Labyrinthos]

I feel sorry that he lost his dogs but, he and his dogs were hunting and so were the wolves.

That's what I was thinking as I read the article: This guy was in the wild, bear hunting with his dogs (he may call it "training," but setting out to deliberately chase bears into trees is a form of hunting), when a bigger animal with a greater natural right to that paricular environment decided to turn the tables and hunt the dogs. I feel bad for his loss, but the animal kingdom is a dog-eat-dog world. (BTW, where I live in upstate NY, I have the right to shoot any dog chasing deer, moose, bear or any other big game.)

[Conservative Texan Mom]

Our cat had was a stray too. She's so cute. Do you remember her picture? You wanted to confiscate her for excessive cuteness. You should see her kittens. She only had two, but they are just as cute, and fiesty. We didn't mind her having one litter, and since it was so small we will probably let her have one more, but then they're all getting fixed. Cats are very useful on a ranch. They keep snakes away from the house, and rats out of the feed room. We feed ours and love on them, so they are very domesticated, but they still love to hunt. It's instinctual. Cinnamon, our kitty you want, is very small, but boy can she hunt. It's so fun to watch her. She'll love all over you, but when she sees something that peaks her interest, off she goes. She's very good at taking care of mice. She doesn't eat them, just kills them, except when she was pregnant. Cravings I guess.

[george76]

"We have enough damn trouble with the bears, the mountain lions and the coyotes," said Nick Theos, a Meeker area sheep rancher, former president of the Colorado Wool Growers Association and former state legislator.

"The sportsmen do. The ranchers do."

Sheep ranchers in Colorado already suffer 5 percent to 30 percent losses to coyotes, said Bonnie Kline, executive director of the Colorado Wool Growers Association.

"We feel strongly the Fish and Wildlife Service shouldn't be able to walk away from the financial responsibility of wolves," Kline said.

Ernie Etchart, a Montrose area sheep rancher, ..."Having another predator around - it's a bitter pill to swallow," ...

The Colorado Cattlemen's Association does not want to see wolves return to the state, Fankhauser said.

[bigfootbob]

It is a part of a bigger UN scheme of land control. It is part of the "Wildlands" project which is part and parcel of Agenda 21.

Check out this link and on the right side there's a .pdf download button entitled "Understanding Sustainable Development" a guide for public officials. Read it.

It has detailed info on the Wildlife corridors, and explains how the Feds are following the NGO's advice and are reintroducing Wolves, Grizzlies and other dangerous pests into inhabited areas.

http://www.freedom21santacruz.net/site/

[Beagle8U]

Rather than SSS, my advice is to gut shoot everyone of them you see with a varmint rifle like a 22-250. Even if they are collared they will run to the next county before they die. Then the stupid eco-twits that are studying them can study the next county guessing who shot it.

Sorry if that sounds harsh or cruel to some people, but they can turn them loose in their own yard if they want them.

[palmer]

I find it utterly bizarre that people would want wolf-dog hybrids as pets.

My neighbor inherited his from his step-son, I think it was banned from its previous county. It's definitely a wierd personality, kind of obedient and protective of certain odd objects (e.g. tennis ball), but hair-trigger like you said. I always take along extra dog biscuits when I go there. He keeps it inside an electric fence, otherwise like you said, it would patrol a lot of territory.

[Shyla]

Actually...I have two.

And they are cute and cuddly;)

[Beagle8U]

"Actually...I have two."

I hope you meant varmint rifles, yes, they are cuddly.

[Shyla]

I do have varmint rifles but I do have two wolves. I raised them since they were two weeks old and they are now three years old.

[ahayes]

Wondering--how do you find them to be in personality, where do you keep them, and how are they trained?

[george76]

If the liberals want the wolves, they can have them...in NYC's Central Park, in the Boston Commons, at the Washington, DC 's Mall...

[Beagle8U]

I agree with that. Shoot, they can fence in SanFranSissyCo and stock it with wolves, grizzel bears, and lions for all I care. Then they could all "experience nature".

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

I am not a liberal, and I'm not an environmentalist, however, I'd like to suggest one correction (flame away all)...It isn't that wolves frequent areas populated by humans, it's that humans frequent areas populated by wolves...i.e. wildlife.

Come on folks. If you would simply do a few minutes of research you will see that human fatalities in the United States due to wolves are zero. Wolves normally run the other way when encountering a human. They are extremely elusive at best.

These poor creatures, I tell you. They are our American Wilderness and would probably be extinct if they hadn't been placed on the endangered list.

[Shyla]

Their personalities differ greatly. The male is a big goof. He loves to play and enjoys people. He would probably let anyone come in and take him. The female on the other hand is very shy - she will not let strangers near her, although she loves little children, especially girls. She loves to cuddled and petted.

I have a large enclosure - double fenced. We have a place where we can take them to let them run and they are secure.

Train? I wish I knew - they pretty much have their own ideas of what they want to do and when.

[Question_Assumptions]

The reason why wolves and bears and other critters don't kill more people is that people either remove them from their nearby environment or build walls to keep them out. Unarmed humans (say, children playing in a back yard or a woman out for a jog) are no match for those canine teeth and claws. And I don't know about your neck of the woods but around here, people don't send their kids out to play in the back yard armed with guns to defend themselves.

[mysterio]

Poor dogs. Too bad no one blasted those wolves.