Protected Mexican gray wolves in Eastern Arizona impacting rancher livestock

 

Once on the brink of extinction, the Mexican Gray Wolf has found new life in its ancestral home in Eastern Arizona and Western New Mexico.

"The recovery plan in Arizona, that is that we meet an average of 320 Wolves over an eight year period," said Jim deVos, who manages the Arizona Game and Fish Department's Mexican Gray Wolf program.

The agency is charged with helping recover enough wolves to get them off the federal endangered species list.

But for every wolf win, there is a potential for loss.

Rancher Carey Dobson says in a good year, 1,500 of his cattle graze in and around the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest, covering about 200,000 acres.

But he says his livestock and his livelihood are in constant danger because of the packs of wolves that live in the area.

"You'll go out there, you'll see these cows just in a big circle around this calf that's just been mutilated," he said. "There's just blood everywhere. And wolf prints everywhere."

Dobson estimates he's lost more than 200 animals to wolf depredations.

"Horses, everything. Sheep, cattle. They'll eat an animal alive," he said. "They don't just kill them. They'll start eating, pull their intestines out. It's horrific."...MORE