The Wolf Preservation Blog

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“Congress removed wolves in Montana and Idaho from the protection of the Endangered Species Act in April. And this fall, the killing began.

As of Wednesday, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game reported that 154 of its estimated 750 wolves had been “harvested” this year. Legal hunting and trapping — with both snares to strangle and leg traps to capture — will continue through the spring. And if hunting fails to reduce the wolf population sufficiently — to less than 150 wolves — the state says it will use airborne shooters to eliminate more.

In Montana, hunters will be allowed to kill up to 220 wolves this season (or about 40% of the state’s roughly 550 wolves). To date, hunters have taken only about 100 wolves, prompting the state to extend the hunting season until the end of January. David Allen, president of the powerful Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, has said he thinks hunters can’t do the job, and he is urging the state to follow Idaho’s lead and “prepare for more aggressive wolf control methods, perhaps as early as summer 2012.”

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead recently concluded an agreement with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to save 100 to 150 wolves in lands near Yellowstone National Park. But in the remaining 80% of the state, wolves can be killed year-round because they are considered vermin. Roughly 60% of Wyoming’s 350 wolves will become targeted for elimination.

What is happening to wolves now, and what is planned for them, doesn’t really qualify as hunting. It is an outright war.

In the mid-1990s, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released 66 wolves in Yellowstone and central Idaho, most of the U.S. celebrated. The magnificent wolf, an icon of wilderness that humans had driven to extinction in the United States, would now reoccupy part of its old range. But in the region where the wolves were introduced, the move was much more controversial.

Part of the reason was the increase, particularly in Idaho and Montana, in paramilitary militia advocates, with their masculine ideal of man as warrior who should fight the hated federal government, by armed force if necessary. They were outraged by what they saw as federal interference in the region spurred by environmentalists, and their ideas found a willing reception among ranchers, who view wolves as a threat to their livestock — even though they ranch on federal land — and hunters, who don’t want the wolves reducing the big game population.

The factions have reinforced one another, and today a cultural mythology has emerged that demonizes the federal government, the environmental movement and the wolves themselves. Many false claims have been embraced as truth, including that the Fish and Wildlife Service stole $60 million from federal excise taxes on guns and ammunition to pay for bringing wolves back; that the introduced wolves carry horrible tapeworms that can be easily transmitted to dogs, and ultimately to humans; that the Canadian wolves that were brought in are an entirely different species from the gray wolves that once lived in the Rockies, and that these wolves will kill elk, deer, livestock — even humans — for sport.

The false claims may have had particular resonance because they built on a long tradition in Western culture. During the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church ruled that wolves belonged to the devil: Demons could take the shape of wolves, as could witches. Puritans brought similar ideas to America. Cotton Mather called New England before it was settled a “howling wilderness.” Asked to investigate Salem’s alleged witches, Mather concluded in his book, “On Witchcraft” (1692): “Evening wolves” (werewolves and witches) were but another of the devil’s tests as New England passed from “wilderness” to the “promised land.”

And that attitude has persisted. Gary Marbut, president of the influential Montana Shooting Sports Assn., wrote in 2003 that “one might reasonably view man’s entire development and creation of civilization as a process of fortifying against wolves.”

Politicians from both parties in Western states have been eager to help with the fortifications. In Idaho, Republican Rep. Mike Simpson and the state’s governor, Butch Otter, made removal of wolves from the Endangered Species Act a political priority. In Montana, Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg has made delisting wolves central to his 2012 Senate campaign against Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. In April, Tester in turn persuaded fellow Democrats in the Senate to approve his inserting a rider in a budget bill that delisted wolves.

In early November, Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, made his own political contribution. Thrilled at the testing of a drone aircraft manufactured in Montana, Baucus declared: “Our troops rely on this type of technology every day, and there is an enormous future potential in border security, agriculture and wildlife and predator management.” A manufacturer’s representative claimed his company’s drone “can tell the difference between a wolf and a coyote.” Pilotless drone aircraft used by the CIA and the Air Force to target and kill alleged terrorists now appear to be real options to track and kill “enemy” wolves.

How far we have fallen since the mid-1990s, when we celebrated the wolves’ reintroduction. During the 2008 presidential election, candidate Barack Obama declared: “Federal policy toward animals should respect the dignity of animals and their rightful place as cohabitants of the environment. We should strive to protect animals and their habitats and prevent animal cruelty, exploitation and neglect.”
(http://www.disinfo.com/2012/01/montana-to-use-unmanned-drones-against-wolves/)

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Wolf Preservation is outraged and condemes the use of these death traps! 

Family’s border collie dies of strangulation and broken neck in government trap set 45 feet from back yard!

WILDLIFE SERVICES, A DIVISION OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRIGULTURE, ANIMAL, PLANT, AND HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICES IS RESPONSIBLE!!

“Imagine a federal wildlife agency setting deadly “instant-kill” traps within 45 feet of your suburban back yard where your children play. Imagine that one of those government-set traps kills your beloved dog and no one returns for the trap, or to even say they’re sorry.

This sounds like the kind of government abuse and secrecy one would see exposed on “60 Minutes,” and it should be. However, that is not the case in Gresham, Oregon, a suburb of Portland, where the government has made every effort to intentionally hide such a tragedy.

The agency responsible? Wildlife Services, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal, Plant, and Health Inspection Services.

Please read Maggie’s story below, watch the video interview with the McCurtains, and email “60 Minutes,” your favorite news show, or your local media today. Give them a link to this story and ask them to do an investigative expose on this case and the USDA’s barbaric, wasteful and indiscriminate Wildlife Services program. If you can help us spread the word by making a financial contribution, donate today.

Maggie’s Horrifying Death

Maggie, the McCurtain family’s black, brown and white border collie, was only seven years old on August 27, 2011, the morning she died just a few feet from her fenced-in back yard. It was an unusually warm morning, which made her routine visit outdoors that much more inviting, and the scents outside that much stronger. For reasons unknown, the backyard gate was open that morning. Within minutes of stepping outside, Maggie—who loved to swim and camp with the family and play fetch with Squeaks the kitten—would have her neck broken and windpipe crushed.

About 9 a.m. Denise McCurtain, Maggie’s guardian, heard frantic knocking at her door. A neighbor asked if the family had a black and white dog. She said she’d seen one by the water but it wasn’t moving. The dog was Maggie. She was immobile because her head was caught in the vice grip of a Conibear “instant-kill” trap. She was still breathing, her eyes flashing in fear and pain from the more than 90 pounds of pressure that slammed the trap’s jaws shut around her neck when she stuck her nose in to sniff the bait.

No one knew how to get the trap off Maggie. There were no instructions on the device, no numbers to call, no signs with any useful information posted in the area. After minutes that felt like hours, Maggie’s family and neighbors located pliers and screwdrivers and were able to move the trap’s springs enough to get her head out. But it was too late. Maggie’s violent struggle was over. She lapsed into shock and gave in to death.

The three McCurtain children—Meg (12), Brandon (14), and Zachary (9)—were still asleep when Maggie died. Covered in mud and dirt, with cut and bruised feet from running barefoot to Maggie’s side, Denise was faced with the horrible question:

How do you wake your children and tell them their best friend and faithful companion is dead?

After hearing the shocking news, the children— overcome with grief—kissed, petted, and hugged the lifeless body of their beloved friend in a final farewell and watched from the windows as their father Doug took her lifeless body to the veterinarian to be examined.

Within these few hours the world was permanently altered for the McCurtains. The fenced-in yard had always felt like a safe zone for Maggie and the kids. But when the unimaginable happened just a few feet away, those feelings of safety disappeared.

The deadly Conibear trap was set just 45 feet from the McCurtain’s back yard in a common area where children play, feed ducks, look for frogs, and retrieve escaped soccer balls. The trap was set to kill Nutria, aquatic rodents which are considered pests. A homeowners’ association email had notified neighbors that these traps would be placed along Cedar Lake, with instructions not to disturb them, but included no information as to the type of traps being used, nor any warning of danger they posed to pets or people, and no information on how to remove/open the traps.

The result: a beloved pet struggling and dying in agony; her family and neighbors traumatized and hysterical, trying desperately to help.

The Conibear trap was concealed and set in front of a live box trap. Children had been playing in the area, unaware that the deadly devices were there, camouflaged with leaves and grass.

Posted nearby was a single sign, a 3-inch circle, stapled to a short wooden stake, indicating that the traps were federal property, and tampering or removing was a federal offense. There was no warning/danger alert about what the traps actually do. There was no information about how to remove the trap, no license or permit information. Nothing about what to do or who to call if the worst happened, if a child or pet were caught. Nothing.

At least two traps were in place by 5:30 that morning, Maggie was dead by 9 a.m. Within a few hours of her death, the trap that killed Maggie along with the live box traps, were gone. The McCurtains found another kill trap behind their house a couple of days later.

Where Could the Family Turn for Help?

Although Denise McCurtain was without guidance and had no idea how to get help, she kept a detailed record of what she was told and by whom. She took photographs of the yard and of the traps. She contacted the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), who referred her to the Oregon State Police.

A state trooper came to the McCurtain’s home and took a statement. After waiting a reasonable period of time, the trooper contacted them again. Neither Doug nor Denise was happy with his response. When Denise asked him why such dangerous traps were used in the first place, she was told that the government-paid Wildlife Services trapper was impatient and wanted to speed up the process. While she had the department’s sympathies, she was told that the trapper had done nothing criminal (neglectful maybe), but there was nothing the authorities could do. The empathetic trooper suggested they contact an attorney.

While it is difficult to get public records from state and federal agencies, this is especially true regarding Wildlife Services. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is designed to force federal government agencies to fully or partially disclose government documents. However, the FOIA process is daunting—even for experienced organizations like Predator Defense—and for individuals it can be overwhelming.

Those who chose to file a federal torte claim for compensation are limited to the value of property lost, including pets (pets are considered property, not persons). The amount of the claim for most pets is relatively small and a person could spend thousands on an attorney trying to get compensation. The emotional loss is impossible to measure. Furthermore, fear of retaliation from Wildlife Services trappers is real.

In many cases, people simply give up because constantly revisiting the trauma of the loss of their beloved pet is too intense and because the specter and expense of taking on the federal government is too frightening. It took the McCurtains six weeks just to find us at Predator Defense. We filed a FOIA request on their behalf and arranged for an attorney to represent them. As of this writing (November 2011), Denise has not heard so much as an expression of sympathy from the homeowners’ association or from Wildlife Services. 

About Conibear Traps

The Conibear “instant-kill” trap kills by breaking the neck and strangling the victim. The one that killed Maggie had a 9” jaw spread; a trap of this size is almost impossible to open by hand. Conibear traps are square, with two rotating jaws, the larger version (the one Maggie died in) has two springs. You can see an animal-eye view of the Conibear trap by watching this video.

Conibear traps are used to capture and instantly kill species—such as badger, beaver, bobcat, coyote, fisher, lynx, nutria, otter, and raccoon—but they are indiscriminate. This means that pets, endangered species, and other non-target animals, such as Maggie, step into their jaws.

According to the manufacturer’s website, Oneidavictor.com, these traps “should NOT, however, be used where non-target animals are at risk for capture” (original text in bold). The traps are strong enough to maim, injure, and kill a child.

**Special thanks to http://www.predatordefense.org/traps_maggie.htm for providing this information.

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“MISSOULA, MT — If Montana hunters don’t reach the statewide quota for wolves by the December 31 deadline, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation wants to extend the season.

“RMEF believes that it is very important that hunters be allowed as much time as possible during these winter months to harvest the statewide quota of 220 wolves,” said RMEF President and CEO David Allen.

When the big game season ended on November 27, hunters took 100 wolves of the statewide quota of 220.

In a November 28 letter to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Allen wrote growing wolf populations have an adverse effect on elk and other big game herds, especially in some specific areas around the state. He also suggested the agency look at other “means of take” to maximize opportunities for hunters to meet harvest quotas.

“It is very unlikely that sport hunting will provide adequate control of wolf populations going forward. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the public should prepare for more aggressive wolf control methods, perhaps as early as summer 2012,” added Allen.

Unlike in Montana, Idaho hunters may use electronic calling to try to lure in a wolf. They can also trap wolves. Baiting wolves in Idaho is illegal, but hunters may incidentally take a wolf while bear baiting.”

**Special thanks to Mark Holyoak (KPAX News) for providing this information!

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**Special thanks to Ray Ring, November 14th 2011 issue of High Country News website) for providing this information!  After reading his comments, please share what you think about ownership of wolves and wild animals!

“I’m hazy about some of the details, because it happened about 25 years ago, but the essence of what I saw is seared into my mind.

As I was driving cross-country on a lonesome two-lane through New Mexico desert, I came upon a forlorn-looking roadside zoo. I saw the sign, felt curious, pulled into the gravel parking lot, and paid to enter what was basically a repurposed mobile home.

There were a few wild animals in a row of concrete-floored cages. I walked along those cages, peering in at their occupants as they peered back at me. I remember a coyote, maybe a wolf, and a bobcat or a mountain lion.

What I’ll never forget is the gut-level experience of seeing all that wildness confined in cramped spaces. And the despair in the animals’ eyes — I don’t think it was my imagination.

I hadn’t thought much about wild animals in captivity before that experience. Like most other people, I’d visited municipal zoos and circuses to see the usual array of elephants and tigers, mostly when I was a kid. But since that roadside zoo, I’ve sought out operations that feature wild animals, to learn more about the conditions they’re kept in and the people who are involved. I’ve paid to see captive wolves and elk in Idaho, captive grizzly bears in Montana, a roadside bird zoo in Utah, the touristy Reptile Gardens in South Dakota, even visited a 7,559-foot-altitude hot-spring oasis in Colorado’s San Luis Valley where alligators are raised. There seems to be no limit to the human desire to possess, exhibit and traffic in wild creatures, including exotic pets.

The more I learn, the more I wonder: What the heck are we doing with these animals, and why? Our cover story examines a particularly Western aspect of this phenomenon: captive wolves. The writer, Ceiridwen Terrill, a college professor in Portland, Ore., spent five years visiting captive-wolf operations around the West. She also draws from her personal experience with the wolf-dog hybrid she tried to raise. Some of the details she’s dug up might disturb you, yet she still manages to give the people she met a measure of respect.

Elsewhere in this issue, HCN editorial fellow Nathan Rice looks for grizzly bears in northwest Washington’s Cascade Range. Are there any still out there, and if there are, how should we handle their management? On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be much in common between the wild animals we hold in cages and the ones we manage in their natural habitat. And yet in some important ways they’re akin. If we actually find any Cascade grizzlies, we’ll capture them to put radio collars on them and track their movements obsessively. There’s also talk of transplanting grizzlies into the Cascades. We can’t seem to stop manipulating wild animals to suit our own goals. Is that just another way of trying to possess the wild? Let us know what you think.”

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