Death is under investigation
The radio collared 2-year-old male of the Wenaha Pack has been killed. It is under USFWS investigation which generally means that it was killed illegally.
Protected wolf killed in NE Oregon.
Associated Press
Protected wolf killed in NE Oregon
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Sorry to hear this Ken.
Too bad to hear this but hopefully there will not be many.
Disheartening.
From the Idaho Statesman-
“Ranchers angry over the state management plan’s limitations on killing wolves to protect livestock spoke out last week at an Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting.
“The more and more these depredations occur, ranchers are going to – I think these guys are going to defend themselves,” Oregon Cattlemen’s Association President Bill Hoyt said in an interview.”
I would be curious to know if killing wolves is Hoyt’s recommended first line of defense for ranchers.
Look for the body count to rise over the next few months.
Interestingly, it took four days for this news to come out because on the day the murdered wolf was discovered, the Fish & Wildlife Commission was meeting in Bend to review and adopt amended rules relating to the recently updated Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan. This included a major rule change which would allow state or federal agents to start killing wolves after a livestock depredation event anywhere in an undefined area surrounding a ranch. Previously, wolves could not be killed unless the depredation occurred on the rancher’s property or adjacent properties. It is likely that ODFW and the Commission did not want to be seen approving more rules favoring ranchers over wolves with the news that ranchers were just indiscriminantly killing wolves anyway.
I remind all that Wolf 314-F, the collared female who went on a 5-state odyssey beginning in Livingston MT and ending in northern Colorado , death due to suspicious circumstances , is still under ” investigation” after 19 months. Not even so much as Cause of Death has been released by Ed bangs and/or agents of USFWS. Nineteen months.
WTF?????
Wolf 314-F: no FOIA request?
Taz— I have corresponded with Ed Bangs a few times in the intervening 19 months and did raise the issue of FOIA in order to pry some clear info from him. He said that because it was an ongoing investigation that he could not and would not release any info. FOIA was out of bounds. That clearly implies a criminal investigation , to my thinking .
It only takes 6 weeks to do a full necropsy at the lab in Oregon . USFWS had a clear cause of death for 314-F by May of 2009 . That was 17 months ago.
So we have more questions than answers.
Thanks Cody. One would think this investigation had huge national security implications from the cloak of obscurity…
Ken,
Not necessarily so that just because there’s an investigation into a dead wolf that it implies foul play. In the first several years in ID, every dead wolf where the cause could not be determined in the field, was treated as a potential crime, though in the end many of them turned out not to be illegal takes. Then again, many of them were. With such a small pop. in OR, wolves on the list again, I believe this would be considered standard procedure.
Will someone please remind me never to read the comments section following a wolf article?!
I know what you mean. Not all of the comments were bad. Here is one I agree with 100%.
“that was removed for good reason. ”
Yes so it would be easier for the welfare ranchers to graze their cattle on and destroy our public lands