The recent decision has angered some conservationists, who view the announcement to eliminate the pack as contrary to Washington’s wolf recovery plan.
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According to the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, the Profanity Peak wolf pack is responsible for numerous attacks on cattle throughout the rangelands.
The approval to extermination the pack came after reports of two more dead calves and an injured calf from grazing area recently.
Since 2008, the state’s confirmed wolf population has grown from two wolves in one pack to at least 90 wolves and 19 packs by early 2016.
State wildlife biologists are moving forward with a plan to kill all 11 members of a wolf pack in northeast Washington. But as is so often the case when wildlife conservation starts to become an inconvenience for humans, this decision was more political than practical. The department’s wolf policy director cited a responsibility to protect livestock in addition to protecting wolves.
A new wolf pack is likely to move into the area once the Profanity Peak wolves are gone.
The Tucannon pack is isolated in the south-eastern portion of Washington, and the Lookout, Loup Loup, and Tenaway packs are in the Northern Cascades.
If the state doesn’t succeed at dealing with the wolves, local officials have tasked the sheriff’s office with killing the animals. OR is home to more than 110 known wolves.
“If there’s a sense in some of these rural communities that there’s no recourse for the chronic, ongoing killing of their cows or sheep killed by wolves, then their willingness to do any kind of collaborative, positive work with the agency and to use nonlethal tools evaporates”, Cantrell said. This time, the WDFW issued a full pack removal. The Defenders of Wildlife and Conservation Northwest organizations both approved the threshold and agree that the Profanity Peak wolf pack has exceeded the parameters.
Washington state has done a lot of work to try to recover the gray wolf species while also fostering public support, a hard task in a state where about a third of the land is used for farming. “These allotments should be retired by the U.S. Forest Service – or livestock losses should simply be expected, and wolves shouldn’t have to pay for it with their lives”. However, wildlife officials insist it is necessary to prevent attacks on local livestock.
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The culling of the Profanity Peak wolf pack is certain to remain a topic of heated debate.
