Monday, June 13, 2011

Some panelists say population cap needed for wolves in state

With wildlife commissioners poised to enact the state's wolf management plan in December, the citizen group helping to craft it remains polarized to the point of being combative. At the panel's two-day work session earlier this week in Ellensburg -- the first meeting in two years in the five-year effort -- members remained sharply divided over the basic issues and couldn't agree on an answer to the most critical question: How many wolves are enough? "We've asked this throughout the process. What is the cap?" said Jack Field who, as executive vice president of the Washington Cattlemen's Association, has been the most outspoken opponent of the wolf numbers called for by the plan. Besides cattle ranchers, some of the most vociferous opponents in those states have been hunters angry over wolves' predation on big-game species, notably elk and deer. But the ranchers and other residents of the rural areas most likely to attract wolves from neighboring states -- "the people who are going to be affected," declared Duane Cocking, a panelist critical of the draft plan -- will need to be careful in protecting their pets or livestock from wolves. Washington state law doesn't allow the killing of state-endangered or protected wildlife by private citizens without a permit. And while state wildlife officials say they'll be quick to issue permits to landowners with an ongoing wolf problem, it will still be a complicated situation. People won't be able to shoot a wolf that's chasing a pet or a domestic herd animal -- only if it's in the act of attacking or, as Field noted, "when it's got your dog by the throat." A rancher also can't shoot a wolf that's standing over a livestock animal it has already killed; that's no longer "considered to be in the act of attacking," according to state law...more

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