Oregon Wolves Need your Help now!
Politicians should be outlawed from taking donations from Cattle ranchers, Ranchers Associations etc. Wolves Everywhere need your Support! Before They are all but gone again.
The appearance of the new breeding pairs automatically triggered Phase 2 of the WMP, putting some of these protections in jeopardy. In Phase 1, it was legally permissible for livestock producers to fatally shoot a wolf that was in the act of biting livestock—an exception ODFW Communications Coordinator Michelle Dennehy says has never been used. In Phase 2 of the plan, however, livestock producers would be legally allowed to shoot a wolf that was in the act of chasing livestock. Phase 1 also required ranchers to use nonlethal methods to deter wolves from their property without wounding the predators, like fencing, alarm devices, reducing bone piles, and keeping dogs around to protect livestock. The ODFW says that nonlethal requirements are in place for Phase 2 of the plan and beyond, but ranchers now have more room to fatally defend their livestock as the wolf population grows.
“We want to give livestock producers as much flexibility as possible to protect their livestock,” says Dennehy. “Some nonlethal techniques work for a time but after a while the wolf figures it out and gets around it.”
Klavins finds this stipulation concerning: “If someone finds a wolf with its teeth in the rear end of their livestock, then protecting the animal seems like a very reasonable response,” he says. “But [the Phase 2 stipulation] rests entirely on the citizen not abusing the law, and also with the state to conduct a thorough investigation after the fact to make sure it doesn’t become a free pass for poaching.”
Another change: In Phase 1, ODFW was obligated to exterminate any wolf that had four confirmed livestock killings. In Phase 2, that number goes down to two. Last year, 18 sheep and four cattle were confirmed to be killed by wolves in Oregon.
via Is the Slow Comeback of the Oregon Wolf Now in Jeopardy? | Portland Monthly.