This Particular Producer declined help from CDFG. If your going to decline assistance, then dont complain!
“With this producer, we made it clear that the wolves were frequenting the site where his cows were,” Traverso said in an email. “We offered the producer non-lethal assistance/tools. The producer declined. One of our employees even volunteered to camp out there to do what he could to dissuade the wolves from using the meadow. Though the producer initially declined that offer, he eventually agreed to it,
A wolf has killed a California rancher’s cow for the first time in more than 100 years, raising tensions in the newly-reclaimed wolf country in California’s rugged northeastern corner.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed that a member of the so-called Lassen Pack killed a heifer Oct. 13 on private property in western Lassen County. Data from a GPS collar worn by the pack’s breeding female showed it had been on site for at least six hours the night the 600-pound yearling was killed. Wildlife officials said wolves were seen at the carcass the following morning.
When state wildlife officers were investigating the kill, the wolf hung close, on a forested slope a few hundred yards away.
“The location and nature of the bite marks and the significant associated tissue hemorrhaging are consistent with attacks by wolves,” the wildlife agency said in a report posted on its website. “Many of the bite marks penetrated tissues to a depth of approximately 1.5 inches.”
Ranchers, already anxious about the threat from wolves since the endangered animals returned to Northern California in 2011, criticized Fish and Wildlife for not announcing the confirmed kill. The incident didn’t get widely publicized until the California Farm Bureau Federation and the California Cattlemen’s Association issued a press release Friday.
“It’s important for Californians to understand the full implications of the wolf’s return,” Farm Bureau President Paul Wenger said in a written statement. “CDFW has been more than willing to notify the public when it identifies a new pack or when wolves have pups. People need to recognize wolves not as cute woodland creatures but as predators that kill.”
State wildlife officials said they hid nothing – the kill had been announced on the DFW’s website and on a blog where the department shares news about California’s wolves.
The Cattlemen’s Association said area ranchers suspect the Lassen Pack also attacked four other calves belonging to the same rancher last month. The state investigated those incidents, ruled out wolves in three of the deaths but said the fourth was a “possible” wolf kill. In the fourth instance, confirmation was impossible because so much of the carcass had been eaten.
In an interview with the Lassen County Times, the rancher, Wally Roney, said he was sure the wolf pack killed all five of the livestock. He said he’s considering moving from Lassen County after the attacks.
“That’s the reason we have the property up here, so we can use it,” Roney told the paper. “Now all of sudden we’re finding, no, we can’t use it. We can’t afford to feed the wolves.”
But Fish and Wildlife spokesman Jordan Traverso said the agency warned Roney about the threat from wolves – and tried to help.
“With this producer, we made it clear that the wolves were frequenting the site where his cows were,” Traverso said in an email. “We offered the producer non-lethal assistance/tools. The producer declined. One of our employees even volunteered to camp out there to do what he could to dissuade the wolves from using the meadow. Though the producer initially declined that offer, he eventually agreed to it, and our employee started making plans to camp. However, the wolves left the site that day and did not return for nine days, effectively making camping unnecessary.”
An environmentalist who has advocated for the California wolf population dismissed ranchers’ concerns.
“I don’t see how it could set back our cause if one is a thinking individual,” said Amaroq Weiss, the wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, a non-profit conservation group that has pushed to get more species listed as endangered.
Although livestock die from numerous causes, “we know that there will occasionally be predations of livestock,” she said.
Source: Ranchers announce wolf kill in California’s Lassen County | The Sacramento Bee