Should WA State Control Their New Wolf Population

Should WA State Control their wolf population

  • Yes, this is an invasive and destructive subspecies.

    Votes: 37 66.1%

  • No, let nature take it's course.

    Votes: 19 33.9%
  • Total voters
    56
  • Poll closed .
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Alaska444 has raised a point which folks are avoiding. Look at rickyrick's thread about PETA and hogs. That's the sort of political problem which the state may not have the political will to deal with.

Local-area people--and even city folks--can be convinced of hog-damage problems, but hogs are not all furry and romantic. A plan can look good on paper, but any governmental plan is subject to changes from purely emotional reasons.
 
Today, 08:17 PM #62
Art Eatman
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Join Date: November 13, 1998
Location: Terlingua, TX, USA
Posts: 19,818
Alaska444 has raised a point which folks are avoiding. Look at rickyrick's thread about PETA and hogs. That's the sort of political problem which the state may not have the political will to deal with.

Local-area people--and even city folks--can be convinced of hog-damage problems, but hogs are not all furry and romantic. A plan can look good on paper, but any governmental plan is subject to changes from purely emotional reasons.
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+1 Art, I seriously doubt that WA, OR and CA will muster the political will to control wolf populations until it is a serious public health threat from wolf behavior and from spread of disease. Wolves have been found in all three of these states to date. They increase by 20% a year, so it won' take long to have significant population burdens in these states.

You are right, folks are looking at this thread as a pro or anti-wolf thread, but it is not that at all. The data on wolves is clear, they harbor serious diseases easily spread to humans and all game animals (100% of moose in some areas are infected) and they will kill until all of the game is gone. The question is whether the propaganda driven political gamesmanship in these states will subject their populations to serious risk. These states will surely have to answer this question in the next 5-10 years. How will they respond? Art is correct, that is the question.
 
Back around fifteen years ago, some west Texas ranchers from around Van Horn were fulminating about the reintroduction of the Mexican wolf. Predation on cattle, natch. Now, they ranch in an area where it's around sixty to eighty acres per cow.

I suggested they quit the cow bidness and go into tourism, attracting the Sierra Clubbers who want to hear wolf howls. Take a tape recorder to wolf country and record a bunch of howling. Then charge Sierra Clubbers some $50 or $100 per night to camp out and listen to the howling. (They'd bring their own firewood; it's a desert, you know.)

The rancher could just sit off a quarter- or half-mile, playing the tape deck while counting his money. Much easier than nurse-maiding a bunch of moo-critters.
 
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