ODFW Proves killing wolves results in more cattle depredations

OR 50 was 2 miles away, yet they choose to blame Wolves 😉 this is the problem, they cry wolf with no solid evidence. Would a person be convicted on a story like that? The Prosecutor would be laughed out of Court.! Much the same way ODFW and poor Ranchers are being viewed.

Ranchers like Delcurto, perhaps not this one, but a different one, have already been caught with their hand out for questionable payments. This Delcurto for one didnt have any business turning out such small calves, again making decent Ranchers look bad. It is these types of Ranchers that make the good ones look bad, especially when ODFW chooses to Ignore studies that show killing pack members lead to more depredations from a pack that splinters. The Public needs to remove these poor examples from being allowed to graze public lands. Poor grazing practices have already been studied and proven that they do not benefit the Publics resources. Not to mention cost the public millions of dollars each year. The Government doesnt help any other businesses why do the public continue to allow them to help these poor examples?

A third Baker County rancher has had cattle attacked by wolves from the Pine Creek pack near Halfway.

Biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) confirmed that wolves attacked a calf belonging to Barry and Shella DelCurto of Halfway early Wednesday.

Barry DelCurto said he found the six-week-old, 150-pound calf Wednesday morning in the North Pine Creek area about 10 miles east of Halfway. He said he moved his cattle on Sunday to an allotment that includes both private and Forest Service land east of the Wallowa Mountain Loop Road and north of Highway 86. The herd consists of about 128 cow-calf pairs and a few cows, DelCurto said.

He said he’s “pretty optimistic” that the calf will survive.

“He seems to be recovering pretty well,” DelCurto said.

DelCurto said a veterinarian who treated the calf told him the greatest threat to the animal, once it survived the initial trauma of the attack, is infection.

ODFW biologists who examined the calf on Wednesday found open wounds on its front and rear legs. The location and size of the wounds “are indicative of wolf attack,” according to the investigation report.

Brian Ratliff, district wildlife biologist at ODFW’s Baker City office, said the GPS collar on OR-50, the Pine Creek pack’s alpha male, showed the wolf, at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, was less than two miles north of where DelCurto found the injured calf the following morning.

Source: Wolves attack calf on different pasture;