Kill order placed on Ore. wolves killing livestock

Two packs known to be breeding in eastern part of state

This April 13, 2009 photo provided by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife shows two wolves standing near the bodies of 2 dead lambs in Baker County, Ore.

GRANTS PASS — A kill order was issued Tuesday for the first wolves caught killing livestock in Oregon since they began moving to the state.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy said extensive efforts were made to persuade the wolves to leave livestock alone in the Keating Valley of Baker County, but haven’t worked. The two wolves have killed 29 animals in five incidents, including last week, when three sheep and a pet goat were killed.

Federal hunters have been given a permit to kill the pair, and the rancher has permission to shoot them to protect his stock, Dennehy added.

“Removal of these kinds of problem wolves is part of overall conservation,” Dennehy said. “We can’t allow chronic livestock losses to continue, unfortunately. We have to take this step.”

The two wolves were caught in an eerie black-and-white photo on a motion-detector camera last April standing over the carcasses of dead sheep at the ranch of Curt Jacobs, who said at the time he did not begrudge wolves moving into Oregon, but did not want them stealing his paycheck.
Jacobs did not immediately return a telephone call to his home.

Since then, wildlife agents trapped one of the wolves and fitted it with a radio collar to keep track of the pair’s whereabouts.

Dennehy said Jacobs has done everything asked of him to protect his stock without killing the wolves — double penning his sheep close to the house, and having guard dogs stand watch. Wildlife agents have tried to scare off the wolves by shooting off guns and chasing them with airplanes, but without success.

The last time a wolf was killed for bounty in Oregon was 1946 on the Umpqua National Forest near Roseburg. In recent years, wolves have been moving into Oregon from Idaho, where they were reintroduced in the 1990s as part of a federal program to return them to the Rocky Mountains.

Two packs are known to be breeding in the wilds of northeastern Oregon, but have not been attacking livestock.

Last May, federal endangered species protection for wolves was lifted in Oregon east of highways 395, 78 and 95, but remains in force in the bulk of the state. State endangered species protection remains in force over the entire state.

“It’s sad it is coming to this,” said Sean Stevens, spokesman for Oregon Wild, a conservation group that supports restoration of wolves in Oregon. “It makes you realize it’s pretty overblown when people are talking about needing more rights to kill wolves.

“We have something like 10 and we’re going to kill off two them in response to depredation. It seems the system at least in part is working and we don’t need more people with guns aimed at wolves.”

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Click here for Oregon Wild's complete press statement on ODFW's wolf kill order