By James Beers:
A Canadian colleague and I recently received the following email from a concerned friend in the State of Washington. I have eliminated names so that what I say will not cause them any needless difficulty.
I have interjected some comments in the request and the reportage about wolves from Oregon. The situation, intrigue and government perfidy about wolves could just as easily come from Arizona or Minnesota or North Carolina.
My attempted response to his inquiry follows and is forwarded for the edification of readers on all sides of this contentious and destructive issue… Jim Beers
———————————————————————————
The Request –
To: Jim Beers <jimbeers7@comcast.net>; YYYYY
Subject: Fwd: Wolves kill guard dog in SW Oregon
Jim and YYYYY,
I’m going hunting next week about 10 miles from——— Ranch. Can you please read the article below and advise me as to how I should coach the rancher? Thanks, XXXXX
Begin forwarded message (with several inserted comments by me, Jim Beers):
Subject: Wolves kill guard dog in SW Oregon
Date: October 2, 2018
Wolves kill guard dog in S.W., Oregon
——- had already lost three calves to wolves from the Rogue pack in southwest Oregon back in January.
On Sept. 24, wolves returned and killed one of the guard dogs —– brought in to protect his herd.
——-, who owns the —– Ranch south of ——-in —– County, said he was awakened early in the morning to the sound of his dog, an adult Tibetan Mastiff, being attacked in a fenced pasture 600 yards from the house.
By the time —— got up, jumped into his boots, grabbed a headlamp and rifle and ran out onto the front porch, he said the wolves were gone, though he did find the dog limping along slowly with blood on its backside. It died later in the day.
Wildlife investigators shaved the dog, finding injuries consistent with wolf bites. —– said the animal’s back end “was like grape jelly.”
The investigation also turned up wolf tracks on the property, which together was enough for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to confirm the (insert your favorite “cutesy” name here. Jim Beers) pack was responsible for the attack.
“There’s no escaping them,” —- said. “It seems like they’re getting pretty brazen.”
Problems with the (naming wolves, besides being disgusting is simply propaganda to fill urban kids and soccer Moms heads with. Jim Beers) pack at —- Ranch began in January, when wolves killed three calves in a span of eight days, prompting —- and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to ramp up non-lethal deterrents (“ramping up non-lethal wolf control” is like an urban high school teacher facing fights and gunfire in her classroom saying she will raise her voice if they don’t stop! Jim Beers) at the property.
As part of the effort, —- was given two Tibetan Mastiffs from a family in—–, Ore., on the other side of the county.
“I do believe they’ve been a deterrent,” —— said. “Any time the wolves have been in the vicinity, they just carry on like crazy.”
John Stephenson, wolf biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Oregon, said the ranch is within the pack’s territory, not far from where the wolves den.
It is common for wolves to act aggressively toward dogs, Stephenson added, viewing them as competition. (How profound! Jim Beers)
“If they have the number on the dogs, they can behave pretty aggressively,” Stephenson said. (Even more profound! Where do these “experts” learn all this? Jim Beers)
The —– pack was started by Oregon’s famous (as in “infamous” if you are trying to make a living where they choose to roam and reveal themselves. Jim Beers) wandering wolf, OR-7, and his mate in 2014. In 2017, the pack had seven known animals, including two new pups that survived through the end of the year.
Unlike wolves in Eastern Oregon, the species is still federally listed as endangered west of U.S. highways 395, 78 and 95. (Let that sort of bureaucratic BS sink in! Jim Beers)
—- said he is working with the USFWS to once again surround his 276-acre property with electrified fladry — lines of rope with flags that flap in the wind to spook wolves from entering the pasture — and set up additional flashing lights to scare away the predators. (Fladry was developed and used by Russian wolf controllers to funnel driven wolves through woodlands to passages where shooters lay in wait. It was and remains effective for that purpose. Setting it up in a static situation is about as challenging for wolves to circumvent upon watching it is similar to expecting a human baby to avoid it in the living room while Mama cooks supper. Electrification of real fences or these gossamer threads in the open is merely something wolves quickly learn to avoid like my golden retriever [and he wore a collar] did with his electric fence when a deer ran through the yard. Dogs and wolves and coyotes are not horses in a pasture that will avoid electrified things. Wolves, dogs and coyotes treat them as just one more thing to learn to circumvent quickly and with a minimum of inconvenience or pain! Jim Beers)
Stephenson said the fladry was an effective tool earlier this year and hopes it will be effective again. (It couldn’t have been any other reason or reasons for variable predation? No, No; wolves are supposed to be like Russians retaking Stalingrad in WW II in that they persist 24/7 until they kill all the livestock or die in the attempt? Remember we pay these do-nothing bureaucrats to bamboozle us and put these ranchers out of business. Is this a great country or what? Jim Beers)
But said he is becoming increasingly frustrated, dealing with the anxiety of wolf attacks at the ranch, fortunately for him he now has access to Westword CBD products.
“I need to have some way to protect my livelihood and not have to stress out about this, day in and day out,” he said.
The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee passed a bill Sept. 26 by a vote of 19-15 that would remove gray wolves from the federal endangered species list in the lower 48 states. (That will be reversed in court when Trump is gone and in the meanwhile we will turn wolves over to a state wildlife agency corrupted by federal overseers, federal money, and state bureaucrats ridden with the radical philosophies if the environmental/animal rights crowd! What could go wrong? Jim Beers)
The legislation has drawn sharp rebukes from environmental and conservation organizations, with Jason Rylander, senior staff attorney for Defenders of Wildlife, saying science — not politics — should decide when to delist species. (Whose “science”: mine or yours? There is no longer any “TRUTH” in the US; only “my” view, “your” view, and who has the most “power! See the Kavanaugh Senate “Hearings” for confirmation. Jim Beers)
“Gray wolf recovery is well underway, but the work is not done,” Rylander said in a statement. (It will never be done until ranching, farming, hunting, fishing, eating meat, animal ownership and management, private property, the 2nd Amendment and rural prosperity for families and communities are all eliminated. Jim Beers)
If Congress really is committed to preserving and protecting wildlife, they would spend their time finding the funding needed to recover species, not attacking the process.” (Sure! You are already spending billions to destroy Rural America under the guise of a “process” to “recover species”. Now with the nation over 20 TRILLION in debt you need more? This entire sham should be cut 90% and sent packing! Jim Beers)
Oregon currently has at least 124 wolves living across the state, according to the 2017 ODFW annual wolf report.
My, somewhat labored, Response:
On 2018-10-03 10:15 AM, jimbeers7@comcast.net wrote:
XXXXX,
I honestly don’t know what to say. If that sounds like I’m a phony or a liar, it is only because what I have seen over the past thirty years does not suggest anything that IS ALLOWED to work.
Put simply:
Wolves have to eat, and they will eat whatever is readily and easily available. Where moose, elk and cattle/sheep are available they will feed on them whenever they can. Livestock are the most vulnerable and available prey; additionally, supplying a large meal of prime meat.
Wolves habituate readily in settled landscapes. The more people, roads, homes and the detritus of civilization are available, the sooner wolves will habituate and their destructive impacts will multiply along with their populations and densities.
Wolves that are neither shot at, trapped, poisoned nor snared will habituate more quickly as surviving wolves will become even less reluctant to go near human activities, habitations or structures.
Wolves, like dogs and coyotes, get “used to” and “figure out how to” avoid and “get around” FLADRY, ELECTRIC FENCES, HIGH FENCES TO GROUND LEVEL, GUARD DOGS (in addition to eventually killing or outwitting them, the wolves will take advantage of bitches “in heat” and inseminate them), “RANGE RIDERS”, NOISE MAKERS, ETC.
Wolves, despite not thinking ahead like we do, live and learn both from their parents and from what they learn from other pack member’s experience. The live day in and day out (including nights) doing nothing more than “learning” how to get the most food with the least effort. There has never been, throughout world history, a way to reduce undesirable wolf impacts other than reducing their numbers year after year to minimize their impacts or killing (“exterminating” or as the Wisconsin DNR says about dogs killed by wolves, “they were ‘depredated’”) as was once done in The Lower 48 States, Europe and the British Isles where the Irish Wolfhound breed was developed exclusively for that purpose when they had the wherewithal and determination to exterminate them in settled landscapes and civilized society.
The wolves you are dealing with are not there for any “scientific” or “environmental” benefit. They are there because of the political influence of powerful and rich Non-Government Organizations (NGO’s) that use their introduction, protection, spread, and the lies spread in the media and schools to implement a range of hidden agendas from eliminating ranching, farming and rural American life in general to taking control of rural America as other Socialist (I do not apologize for being political about a political matter here) agenda items from gun control to overall societal control are implemented nation-wide. In this effort they are enabled by unjust federal laws like the ESA; a federal workforce of Socialism-advocates writing the regulations they enforce; and state governments and state wildlife agencies in particular that are no more than federal subcontractors begging for federal money and jobs like the University professors and the NGO’s.
Nothing has been done to change anything other than make it worse since the ESA gave legitimacy to the illegitimate imposition of wolves in the settled landscapes of the Lower 48 States. They are NOT Endangered, Threatened, or in danger of anything except eventually being subsumed into the domestic dog gene pool somewhere down the road. All of the “Court Decisions”; “Secretaries’ Orders”; and Congressional promises of “Amendment”, “Reform” and “Change” were and are smoke and mirrors. Unless the ESA law is changed wherein the USFWS has no power to take private property without compensation, and the federal role vis viz resident non-treaty wildlife is returned to State Jurisdiction as provided in the US Constitution….. What can I say?
You can’t shoot them.
There is no proven or consistent non-lethal control or protection for livestock out of a barn.
The State government that is supposed to protect you is no more than NGO-advocates disguised in state uniforms working as federal deputies under federal overlords that are salivating to make “examples” of any peasant that dares to try to “obstruct” or “resist” them. Between their satellite collars, supportive tinker belle courts, and enforcement techniques developed over time from Al Capone to Islamic Terror Operations, one need only remember the recent Bundy Operation in Nevada and the rancher killed in the Oregon snow with his hands in the air to understand what you are up against.
I wish I could give you some help, but other than prayer, I know of no nostrum. If you see one, let me know and I will do all I can to tell others there is an answer to this positively awful situation.
Jim Beers
3 October 2018
If you found this worthwhile, please share it with others. Thanks.
Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC. He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC. He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority. He resides in Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades.
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