Ohio man details attack by wolves on beagles during Upper Peninsula trip

An Ohio man whose beagles were attacked and killed by wolves last month in Chippewa County says he will never return to the Upper Peninsula to train dogs again. "I won't be back," Jim McGuire of Amanda, Ohio, told The Mining Journal of Marquette. "There's no way I could come back and in good conscience turn my dogs loose and have this happen again." McGuire's pledge ends 20 years of traveling with friends to the beauty of the Hiawatha National Forest to run hunting beagles on snowshoe hares. On Aug. 7, Michigan Department of Natural Resources wildlife technician Tim Maples of the Sault Ste. Marie field office had initial DNR contact with McGuire. The two men spoke on the phone. "He said that he and his friends were training dogs near Rudyard on Aug. 6 when wolves attacked and killed their nine beagles," Maples said in the report. The two friends of McGuire were Larry Harrison and Scott Derrick from Charleston, West Virginia Others had also been on the trip to Michigan from out of state, but had already gone home, McGuire said. In his report, Maples listed nine beagles reported killed including six males and three females. The males ranged in age from 2 to 5 years old. One of the females was 2 years old and the second was 9 months old. "The dog owner provided pictures of five carcasses," said DNR Wildlife Division Chief Russ Mason...more