We here at Protect The Wolves™ would have to ask a prudent individual how they see this Wildlife Managers Statement. What sort of Individual would think that slaughtering leads to a willingness to tolerate? Sure if your an Old West Mentality Rancher that is too lazy to properly teach his herd predator awareness.
Sounds alot like CDFW where we reported a dead carcass in October to their only so-called Wolf Biologist that answered over a month later that he was unaware. People like him that refuse to accept the truth, then act on it, truly have no business managing the Publics resources!
Northwest wildlife managers say they use lethal control, in part, to increase people’s willingness to tolerate wolves.
Above Statement sounds more like they are only interested in perpetuating the “Old West Mentality” that was kill everything. Along with their recent actions of refusing to allow or invite public comment on issues like their new lethal protocol both in Washington as well as Oregon. Clearly their new slaughter protocol was put in place for special interest elected officials such as Dashiell or Kretz in Wa. Kretz who has been seen outright publicly issuing indirect DEATH Threats against Dr. Robert Wielgus.
WDFW is now blaming lower Ungulate Populations on predators, what a sad joke that they are pushing this off on Predators! Perhaps they should consider shutting off hunting seasons for everything.
Managing wolves in the West is as much about politics, economics and emotion as it is about science.
“Sometimes you view it as being between a rock and a hard place, or being yelled at from both sides,” said Derek Broman, carnivore and furbearer coordinator for Oregon Fish and Wildlife. “I like to say it’s balance.”
To balance the costs of killing wolves, ecological needs and the concerns of ranchers and wolf advocates, it’s the policy of both Oregon and Washington to kill wolves incrementally — starting with one or two at a time. But in making that compromise between preserving wolves and preventing livestock damage, they’ve taken a course of action that scientific evidence suggests could achieve neither.
Policies and practices in both states go against a growing body of research casting doubt on the overall effectiveness of killing predators.
Neither state follows recent recommendations from top researchers that their efforts to control predators be conducted as well-designed scientific studies. And neither follows the primary recommendation from the research most often used as evidence, which found killing most or all of a pack is the most effective form of “lethal control” to reduce ranchers’ damages.
Instead, some scientists and advocates say, Oregon and Washington are risking harm to the Northwest’s wolf population without ever reducing predation on cattle and sheep.
“Oregon and Washington may be playing with fire in their incremental control approach,” said professor Adrian Treves, who founded the Carnivore Coexistence Lab at the University of Wisconsin. “Not only is there very little evidence for the effectiveness of lethal methods, but there are more studies that find counterproductive effects of lethal control, namely that you get higher livestock losses afterward.”
Northwest wildlife managers say they use lethal control, in part, to increase people’s willingness to tolerate wolves. Treves said there’s little data to support that it’s actually helping shape public opinion to accept wolf reintroduction. In fact, Treves has published research suggesting otherwise: that government-sanctioned killing of wolves may actually embolden individuals to illegally do the same.
Source: Is the Northwest’s approach to wolves destined to fail?