#Protectthewolves
I find it amusing that The Ranchers are bothered!!! However We are Very Bothered at their lack of returning Phone calls #animalcruelty when we could Offer them a Viable Solution to remove the wolves without Slaughtering them!! Please support our Cause http://gofundme.com/protectthewolves
Their lack of Communication is only getting more people to take action we hope!
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife continued Friday to hunt for an undisclosed number of wolves in the northeastern corner of state, an open-ended mission that has people with widely varying viewpoints about wolves wondering what the department plans.
WDFW shot two wolves in the Profanity Peak pack Aug. 5 in Ferry County, a fact the department waited six days to reveal.
WDFW wolf policy lead Donny Martorello said Friday the department considered announcing the shootings earlier, but decided to strictly follow a new department policy and only release information about lethal-removal operations in weekly updates. The next update won’t be due until Aug. 18.
Martorello said the policy, approved by the department’s Wolf Advisory Group, is intended to keep the curious and malicious from interfering.
“There’s no part of us that wants to be secretive,” he said. “It’s entirely for the producers, (WDFW) staff and public.”
Besides not revealing operational details, such as where, when and how WDFW is hunting for wolves, the department has declined to say how many wolves it plans to kill, saying only that it will “partially remove” the pack.
“It doesn’t engender a lot of trust, does it?” said state Sen. Brian Dansel, who represents Ferry County.
Dansel said he wasn’t surprised by WDFW’s restricted release of information.
He recalled that the department last year broke with its own policy by closing portions of meetings of the Wolf Advisory Group.
“When they don’t identify what ‘partially remove’ even means, I’m not too stunned,” Dansel said.
With two female members of the pack dead, the pack has four adults and five pups surviving, according to WDFW.
Ferry County Commissioner Mike Blankenship said WDFW has not responded to the board of commissioner’s request for the entire pack to be removed for public safety.
He criticized the department for not being upfront about its plans and that all he knew was that for several days WDFW has had “zero results.”
“I think it needs to be public and if the bleeding hearts want to put pressure on them, let’s expose who’s doing it,” Blankenship said.
“We’re not convinced as of yet that (WDFW’s) intent is to do what needs to be done,” he said. “There are still nine animals that need to be removed.”
Martorello said WDFW’s on-the-ground employees have the option of hunting for wolves from a helicopter or on the ground. The two wolves were shot Friday from a helicopter. WDFW also may trap wolves, he said.
“Every day they assess what their plan is,” Martorello said. “We have not set an end date. We re-evaluate every week.”
WDFW’s policy on releasing information was substantially shaped by the department’s experience in 2014, when it announced it would shoot up to four wolves in the Huckleberry pack and suspended operations after killing one.
Martorello said the department did not want to create false expectations for a plan that may change.
“Our intent is to remove a (certain) number. It is not guaranteed,” he said.
Stevens County rancher Scott Nielsen, vice president of the Cattle Producers of Washington, said that not announcing a number beforehand might help the WDFW to describe the mission a success later.
“That’s the beauty of not telling people,” he said. “I think they should tell us what they’re going to do.”
A newspaper, the Ferry County View, learned about the shootings from a source outside WDFW and posted a report on Facebook two days before WDFW provided an update.
Amaroq Weiss of the Center for Biological Diversity said WDFW waited too long to confirm that two wolves had been shot.
“They’re shooting public wolves on public land. That should mean also keeping the public informed,” she said.
Once WDFW revealed the shootings, the center issued a statement calling on the department to suspend operations to see whether attacks on livestock would stop.
The pack killed at least four calves and one cow, according to WDFW, but has been linked with any depredations since the department started the lethal-removal operation.
“If they have killed two wolves, and they haven’t seen any more depredations, why are they still out there?” Weiss asked.
Martorello said WDFW wants to have a “high degree of certainty” depredations will stop.
As for not removing the entire pack, Martorello said the new protocol calls for the department to try partial removal first.
“We believe and are hopeful that will stop depredations,” he said.
Source: State’s silence on wolf killing frustrates observers