By B. J. Waters
Terry Harris's
article about the war on wolves was a great snapshot into how ridiculousthese
decisions have become by the Idaho Senate Resource Committee. Now the witch hunt over the wolf escalates
into high gear as we see a need to explore a new list of ways in which we can
annihilate them (forget any collateral damage).
The frenzy is well and alive; if you lose a chicken, the wolf is killed
it. If you lost a dog, the wolf ate
it. If your tire is flat in the morning,
a wolf bit it.
Truth is, we recreate
in the woods year-round and our biggest problem hasn't been the wolf but the
ominous snares that have already killed two of our dogs. We discovered three abandoned snares left on
our land that had one coyote, one snowshoe rabbit and a deer (with a snoare
still wrapped around its muzzle), all three in various stages of decomposition
because the trapper must have forgotten about these sets. Have we gone into the bizzaro world?
My wife takes long
walks with her dog. a few months ago,
her dog was caught around its belly with a snare. She clung to the dog on the ground to keep
her from squirming because with every squirm, the cable would cut deeper into
its guts. She was o n her cell phone for
over an hour trying to reach someone with cutters to set her dog free. I finally got her message and managed to cut
the snare off. It is a shame that we now
have to carry cutters when we walk in the woods.
Granted, wolves kill
elk and deer, etc., but that is what wolves do; so do mountain lions, and other
predators. I have not seen any depletion
of elk in my travels; in fact, I have found an overabundance of them this
year. I think the stories about elk herd
depletions are coming more from disgruntled hunters than from wolf
problems. If anything, the wolf moves
the elk around, as it should be to balance grazing areas. There are several states that have found new
ways to co-exist with the wolf with regards to sheep and cattle that have been
very successful. Why aren't we spending
our resources on exploring some of these options and just leave a rifle hunting
season open for wolves instead of bringing in the Calvary?
We need our predators
and it seems to me that we "dropping sticks to pick up bricks" with
this new arsenal of ways to destroy the wolf.
I know it has turned my world upside down. The wolf has never bothered me more than
these new measures created by man to destroy them.
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