Pack Ten Wolf Video: Reaction From Around The State

ODFW releases video confirming the second set of wolf pups in Oregon in over 60 years. Wildlife advocates see it as a positive step towards recovery. The Oregon Cattlemen's Association want the right to shoot them.

ODFW believes this is the alpha male of the Imnaha pack. Photo from ODFW.

Ranchers are nervous, environmentalists are delighted, a day after Oregon Fish and Wildlife released its first video of wolf pack in Eastern Oregon. ODFW says there are at least ten members in the pack, a number that seemed to surprise just about everyone except for wildlife experts.

“Watching the video yesterday was exhilarating,” writes Rob Klavins of Oregon Wild. In a statement released today, Klavins adds, ” I’ve seen a lot of bad news related to wolves fly across my computer screen in the past few months. Poaching in Idaho. Wolves chased down on ATVs in Montana. Research wolves gunned down outside Yellowstone.”

“I think most Americans, and Oregonians, have been pretty appalled at the wolf carnage of the past few months. So, to see a good sized pack of what appear to be healthy wolves making their way across the eastern Oregon landscape without the threat of a shotgun blast – well, that’s pretty exciting.”

But a story in the Wallowa County Chieftain shows that ranchers in Eastern Oregon have a much different reaction. Rod Childers of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association tells the paper he’s been hearing an increasing number of wolf sightings lately.  He says most ranchers have already moved their cattle into winter feeding territory, away from wolves, and that attacks on livestock will probably pick up in the spring.

Childers also tells the paper his organization will push again next year for the right to shoot wolves that are attacking or stalking livestock. Under the state’s Wolf Management Plan, only wildlife officials are allowed to kill wolves. That changes as wolf numbers rise and wolves are delisted.

But Klavins says it’s too early to remove protections for wolves. “Even with the new confirmation of the size of this pack, we still have only 15 or so wolves in the entire state. Now is not the time to take decision-making power away from our professional wildlife managers and allow anyone with a gun and pasture to shoot wolves.”