Posted on 10/31/2002 4:31:44 PM PST by Delphinium
Eric Barker An Orofino man is licking physical and emotional wounds after wolves attacked his horses on the Little North Fork of the Clearwater River.
One horse had its back broken during the attack and two more where chased off by the wolves and have not been seen for more than a week.
Bror Borjesson, who lives between Orofino and Lenore, fears that they are dead and he has lost not only three horses but three pets.
"We think they have been run out into the brush by the wolves and eaten," he said. "It's just a bad deal."
Borjesson and his family were hunting near Get Away Point earlier this month when they were woken at 1:30 a.m. by what he describes as a "god-awful commotion" coming from his horse trailer. He grabbed a small flashlight and ran to the trailer, where he saw four wolves attacking his horses. Two of the horses were tied up and one had been allowed to roam free during the night.
One of the tethered horses, a pregnant registered appaloosa mare named Sheena, flipped while trying to escape and broke her back. Bullet, a 3-year-old gelding, broke his harness and fled with unrestrained Syringa, a pregnant registered appaloosa. Borjesson saw the horses disappear into the night with the wolves in pursuit. Despite more than a week of searching, he has not seen them since.
"I'm just loosing faith," he said. "I'm getting pretty bummed behind it."
While trying to get Sheena on her feet, before Borjesson realized her back was broken, the horse fell on him and dislocated his leg. When it became light in the morning it was clear Sheena's back was broken just above the shoulders and Borjesson had to put her down.
"My wife said 'if it wasn't for bad luck you wouldn't have any luck at all'," he said. "You go into the woods with four horses and come out with one, that kind of sucks, you know."
Borjesson is particularly heartbroken over the apparent loss of Bullet, a young appaloosa-mustang mix he was training to be his saddle horse. At 6-feet-6, Borjesson said he's never had saddle horse that fit him, but Bullet was just right.
The young horse, which stands 16 hands tall and weighs 1,300 pounds, packed out his first elk this fall and performed beautifully, despite never having worn a pack saddle before, Borjesson said.
"He's not even a horse, he's more of pet dog than a horse."
Family and friends spent more than a week helping him look for the horses and did not come out of the mountains until Monday, when a storm threatened to snow them in. They searched every acre within a 5- mile radius of their camp and drove roads and trails in a 30-mile radius, but came up empty. Borjesson plans to hire a plane and resume the search when the weather breaks.
Curt Mack, director of wolf recovery in Idaho for the Nez Perce Tribe, said the Marble Mountain Pack was likely responsible for the attack. Although he has received reports of wolves chasing horses, this is the first instance he can recall in which wolves have attacked horses. The fact that the horses where tethered and thereby more vulnerable probably made them an attractive target.
"I could sure see where the wolves would take advantage of horses in that situation," he said.
Mack said his crew plans to conduct regular monitoring flights in the area the first week of November and would be happy to coordinate search efforts with Borjesson.
Employees of the federal Wildlife Services Agency, which helps control predators, attempted to investigate the attack site, but were unable to make contact with Borjesson, according to state director Mark Collinge at Boise.
The Defenders of Wildlife pays ranchers for cattle and sheep they lose to verified wolf attacks, but Collinge said he was unsure if the program would cover a private hunter's horses. Officials from the environmental group could not contacted Tuesday.
Borjesson said there is little to investigate other than the carcass of the horse that was put down. Wolves returned a few days after the initial attack to feed on the dead horse, he said.
Borjesson was no fan of wolves prior to the incident and has less love for them now.
"I don't know what we need these things for," he said. "They are just wiping out our elk. I think the wolves have gotten away from them. I think that is what is happening."
Gray wolves were re-introduced into central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and 1996. The canine predators have done remarkably well and are expected to reach recovery goals this winter.
Mack said there are an estimated 260 wolves in Idaho and at least 11 breeding pairs in 17 packs. Federal guidelines call for the wolves to be removed from Endangered Species Act protection after there are a minimum of 30 breeding pairs in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana for three consecutive years.
However, the three states have to have federally approved management plans in place before the wolves can be removed from the endangered species list.
Idaho has prepared a management plan, Montana is said to be close behind and Wyoming is bringing up the rear.
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Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com
Here in Alaska you can't let dogs loose come winter or they become supper. I have had wolves within 100 yards of cabin trying to call my sled dogs out. I invested 4 gran in winter kennels over them eatin machines.
I have horses. Do you want to take this out to the parking lot?
And if they are around my horses so does a .30'06 have a pace in the eco-system.
For each wonderful wolf, there are 100s of government employees whose careers, salaries, pensions, and bonuses depend on that wolf. They don't care if the wolf eats one of your childeren. This is a government project, conceptualized by some ultra-leftist, liberal extremist who met a honey at a love in who knew a guy who said that wolves taking back land stolen by taxpayers would be cool.
God knows I'm Norwegian myself not very far back, but anyone with a name like that must have sharp corners on his square head!
You sure got that right.
Cool your jets, glorgau. This re-introduction of wolves thing is way out of hand. It's time to get some balance in the system - like ranchers and others being able to defend themselves against the wolves. Feed 'um lead if you or your animals are attacked.
Wolves aren't stupid and will quickly figure out that man can fight back with lethal force. Right now the wolves are over-protected IMO. Oh, and where do YOU live, BTW? Lots of personal experience in dealing with wolves in your back yard, have you?
A few wolves are ok, a pack will go from 3-4 to 30-40 very quick if food is available. They need to bring back wolf control something terrible. The buggers decimate everything. Now if you want the land to suppport 10% of the elk and moose it can; bring on the wolves; cause that''s what you'll have and no hunting for the masses. That's the real balance of nature.
The only way they have much success up here is running them down with snowmachines and that still doesn't even begin to control their numbers.
He reads about wolves in his National Geographic that his Gram 'ma has bought a lifetime subscription for his little self.
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