Two pups from Umatilla River pack (no longer active) Photo courtesy of ODFW

The Oregon Department of Fish and Game has given the go-ahead for cattle rancher Chad DelCurto to kill two wolves in northeastern Oregon after wolves killed three calves. This just barely happened on April 6th and 7th! So now,  any two out of this new family can be killed. There are eight members and the breeding female is pregnant and due in about a week!! Under no circumstance should this be allowed, especially when one is pregnant! They have five pups almost a year old and the pack’s breeding male, OR50, was formerly of the Harl Butte Pack but left that pack in October 2017 and joined OR36 in Baker County. The previous breeding male OR29 left the pack in the fall and was shot and killed in Idaho in the winter.

Oregon is also well known for poaching wolves, setting up illegal traps and the most obvious, being that most ranchers want wolves dead and want it done right away.

When Protect the Wolves heard that the rancher demanded the entire pack be killed a volunteer immediately got in touch with ODFW Wildlife Communications Coordinator, Michelle Dennehy who said that the livestock producer is leasing land on private property and that they were now working with him using deterrents but we were not told what he was doing prior to the depredations.

In today’s update, it was said that the producer had delayed turning out his cattle and before he did, he and range riders watched for wolf activity but saw none. After a report of wolves in the area chasing his cows, the producer used range riders to check cattle and harass wolves. After the second depredation, riders hazed wolves. Why didn’t they even have fladry up? Why not radio-active guard boxes? Foxlights? This is on private property and there is no reason why Chad DelCurto did not have proper deterrents set up PRIOR to turning cattle out! The bottom line is if they were using the necessary deterrents then the wolves wouldn’t be able to get to the livestock.  He wanted the entire pack killed! This is really destroying the reputation of the beef business even further! Who in the hell wants to buy beef when they know families of wolves were killed for it? ~ L.G