WOLVES ON A KILLING SPREE PROMPT COUNTY TO TAKE ACTION

Wolf incidents in Catron County are on the rise and Catron County’s Commissioners, who declared an emergency situation in February, 2006, are now determined to take firmer action to protect the citizens here. “These wolves are on a killing spree,” said Catron County Commission Chairman Ed Wehrheim recently. “They killed a horse on Whitewater Mesa just the other day, the second horse in just one month.” Wehrheim is gravely concerned because these are just more incidents in what appears to him and the other Commissioners to be a never-ending spiral of killings of animals that the Commissioners feel will ultimately end with the attack by a wolf on a human being. The County passed the emergency declaration last year primarily to put a halt to the economic devastation caused by the presence of Mexican wolves which not only hunt wild game, but also kill cattle, horses, dogs, cats and other domestic animals. Now it appears that the situation has become more than an economic emergency and has escalated to a high level of risk for human lives in Catron County. At base is the problem that many of these wolves are habituated to humans. This means that, unlike normal wild animals, habituated wolves are unafraid to be around humans and areas where humans spend time. It becomes more and more difficult to haze away habituated wolves when they have their sights set on an easy meal - which may be a family pet. This is just what happened with the Miller family on their Link Ranch in Catron County south of Wall Lake - not far from a dude ranch where families with children vacation. Last November, the Millers’ eight year old daughter went out to the corral near the house to let the horses in to feed them grain. Right in front of her, the alpha male of the Aspen wolf pack attacked the family dog which had accompanied her to the corral. The wolf was unfazed by the Millers’ attempts to chase it off the dog, which was only saved from death by the fact that it was wearing a large collar. This was the second attack on one of the Miller’s dogs in just weeks. Then, early in January, wolves trapped the Miller’s daughter’s horse, Six, in the same horse pen, where Six had run for safety. There was blood everywhere. If this was a typical wolf kill, Six would have been torn apart and eaten while still alive. Hopefully the Miller’s daughter is unaware of that fact. The wolves continue to stalk the rest of the Miller horses, sometimes chasing them for miles. “The horses are back at our house but so are the wolves,” Mark Miller reported last week. “As of this morning, the wolves are all around the house and the horses are huddled in a corner of our property.” Miller went on to express his concern for his daughter’s emotional health, since at eight years old, she cannot help but be aware that if her dogs can be attacked and her horse killed, she might be the next victim....