B.C. ranchers estimate wolf attacks on livestock cost $15 million a year

Large packs of wolves are feasting on the province’s cattle in alarming numbers, according to ranchers, who claim that mortality rates of cows and calves have doubled over the past year. The B.C. Cattlemen’s Association estimates the industry is losing up to $15 million a year because of wolf attacks and is calling for a “thinning” of the wolf population in hard hit areas such as the Peace River and Cariboo regions. The last series of wolf culls in B.C. took place in the mid to late 1980s. Conservationists shocked by the idea of a cull say wolves should be more protected than they are now and that it’s unfair to blame the nocturnal creature or make them suffer for killing livestock on the basis of unverified claims...more