MEXICAN WOLVES

Laura Schneberger with the Gila Livestock Growers Association had an interesting and informative op-ed published by the Tucson Citizen. She has posted the op-ed here on her Wolf Crossing weblog. An excerpt:

It is long past time to dispense with the party line that constantly dribbles from the Mexican wolf public relations machine. But since the agency’s own public relations person will not do it, producers must. And 12 years in the program has to count for something as ranchers have been involved longer than any wolf program employees. That qualifies us to answer some questions: • Are Mexican wolves removed from the wild genetically indispensable and leading to a second extinction in the wild? No, they are all surplus animals well represented in the captive breeding program. The genetically indispensable animals are housed, bred, fed and well-protected. Those wolves produce pups to replace any wolf removed from the wild. As long as populations of captive animals exist, wolves won’t be extinct in the wild and the captive population is larger than it has ever been. Despite claims made in recent media reports, mere suspicions have never been and will never be the cause of removal of a Mexican wolf from the land. There must be three confirmed wolf kills of livestock. Then, and only then, will one wolf in a pack possibly be subjected to removal. Even with numerous bite sizes on a bovine or equine victim, often only one wolf is assigned the strike, (now called, livestock depredation incident) even when the entire pack is confirmed to have been involved in the attack on the dead animal....