WOLVES - MORE LETTERS TO ALBQ. JOURNAL

Ms. Soussan, I find your article "Wildlife officials kill problem wolf" is designed to get a sympathetic response from the public to support a one sided view of wolf reintroduction. I have read many of your past articles on wolves and you have maintained the same. A responsible reporter gives the public all the information on an issue so they can make an informative decision. First, the trapping and kill orders on a three strike wolf are in the SOP's. These Sop's are law and all organizations had a say when they were structured. If you read the information listed on the Federal Register concerning the Mexican Wolf, you will see there is little protection for the people against wolf interactions. There are little or no protections for the residents of Catron County. We have wolves on private property at homes killing and injuring cows, horses,dogs, cats, chickens and so on. Wolves confronting our children. There has been documented psychological trauma by a child psychologist on our children and families. Nightmares, PTSD, sleepless nights, children afraid to walk from home to the bus stop to go to school, children afraid to go out of their homes to play in their yards.

Do any of these things make the news papers, no or very little. Why?

Aren't these rural families and their children as important as any other child in America? I want you to remember what I say to you: One day a Mexican wolf is going to severally injure or kill one of our children and there will be a thousand reporters writing on this terrible tragedy, but they will cite one hundred reasons it was not the wolves fault for killing the child, are you going to be one of these? Will Mr. Robinson have a comment, likely not. Did you know there is no historic information on Mexican wolf behavior? It is ongoing as we speak and the fact is the USFWS and other NGO's do not know what a Mexican wolf will of will not do.Second, you look to Mr. Robinson as you only source for a comment. He has been using this same statement that you cite as the only authority. I have found no scientific peer reviewed documentation that wolves scavenging on cattle, horses etc. will cause a wolf to habituate and make them start killing them. But if you cite this statement long enough in the news paper, the public will believe it even if it is not scientifically proven. Simply, a wolf does what a wolf does, they kill animals. Most times they will stress a cow down from a chase and feed on it while it is still alive, then it finally dies. We are not talking about just a wolf killing a cow. The cow is private property of another, the owner feeds his family, houses his family with the money he makes raising this cow, and just like you do with the money you make as a reporter.You do not have any idea how severally the family ranchers are impacted by livestock losses to wolves. You live two hundred miles from us and you know little to nothing of what the truth is, how the folks here have changed the way they live to accomadate the wolf. I have seen what the wolf does. I have looked into the eyes of the scared children and parents, I have necropsy ed the remains of a childes pet and ranchers livestock. I know firsthand what wolves can do, But the worst thing I know is, that the city folks seem to careless what is happening to the rural people of New Mexico.

Jess Carey CWII

Catron County Wolf Interaction Investigator


Does the Journal really think this lady has it right? She ought to get your award for "Most Biased Reporting" and you ought to receive the same award for allowing it.

There is another side to this wolf recovery program. Its called TRUTH. I challenge you to objectively report the TRUTH about the Wolf Recovery Program and its devastating attack on the lives and property rights of our fellow New Mexicans in Catron County and surrounding areas.

The anguish, anger, fear and feeling of helplessness that these wolves create in our friends and neighbors (...they are your friends and neighbors too!) around the wolf recovery area is beyond description and, I think, criminal.

Maybe one day when one of these wolves threatens or hurts someone close to you.....you will see the light. Ms. Soussan, bless her heart, never will.

Joe Delk
Paragon Foundation


When writing articles from which the public will form opinions regarding the wolves, Tania Soussan might seriously reconsider using her current source. When he attends any wolf meetings in the New Mexico and Arizona areas, the Wildlife Services, Game and Fish, and the USFS personnel are extremely impatient with him. We take our leads from the governmental agencies and how they respond to his position on this issue.

They make no attempt to conceal their contempt for him, or for the irresponsible comments he makes. Often he is ungraciously told to “sit down and shut up,” or he is simply not allowed to make further comments. When the very agencies who are attempting to force the wolf program upon us cannot abide by his opinions, The Albuquerque Journal may want to think this over. In the future, perhaps you can consider speaking to someone who knows what is going on in the Gila National Forest.

You might begin with Mr. Jess Carey, our Catron County Wolf Predations Investigator. He can be reached at 505-533-6776. Psychological counseling has been set up for several families and their children who are terrorized by the wolves watching children waiting for the school buses, or attacking their pets on the front porches!

Perhaps you might consider some of the ranchers still in business, but losing it fast to wolf predations on horses and cattle. Don and Jeannie Jones of the Y Canyon Ranch are at 505-772-5195. How about Don Gatlin of the Rainy Mesa Ranch, or Preston Bates of the N Bar Ranch? Unfortunately, several ranchers and hunter guides are gone bankrupt as a direct result of the wolf introduction.

Wolves have been in my neighborhood a several occasions, but one actually took down prey no more than 1300 feet from my front door. My driveway is only 12 feet wide, a straight up bluff on one side with a 100 foot drop straight down to the river on the other. Had I met this wolf head on at this point, I would have had no place to hide. I would also have been caught by surprise without a pistol. Earlier this summer, another wolf attacked my neighbor’s calves at 6:30 am. That was about the same distance from my bedroom window. Fortunately my neighbor was in the field and was able to frighten the wolf away.

Mr. Joe Nelson’s 14 years old boy was surrounded and stalked by 3 wolves. He was terrified at their stalking and threatening approach, but he was afraid to use his rifle in self-defense for the fear that his father would go to prison and lose everything the family owns.

No, Ms. Soussan is not getting the whole picture. Just as in a court of law, if it isn’t the “whole truth and nothing but the truth,” it isn’t the truth at all.

Only two days ago, a documentary was on television regarding the need to raise bear cubs in captivity, due to the deaths of the mothers. Throughout the program, it was considered a very sad thing that these animals could not safely be returned to the wild, because having been habituated to humans made them defenseless in the wild. I have seen many documentaries on this subject with various wild animals. Why is it that the wolf should be the exception? Human habituation of these wolves is the very reason they are unable to live a truly wild life and are a nuisance to humans. If we turn our human habituated dog or cat loose in the forest and expect it to survive or live well, we would be arrested for cruelty to animals!

There are many of us who would love to share more with The Albuquerque Journal’s “responsible” journalists.


C. Gillespie
Reserve, NM 87830