Improve ranching practices

Wolves are predators that kill to eat. Scavengers eat leftovers. No waste. Some hunters practice “sport hunting” for the joy of chase and kill. Not to eat their kill.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics cited in a Dec. 13, 2014 op-ed by Ron Reed, in 2009 there were 2,100 sheep and lambs lost to non-predator-related causes in Washington. In 2010, 37,300 Washington cattle and calves died from causes unrelated to predation, compared with 1,700 cattle and calves lost to all predators combined, including coyotes, mountain lions, dogs, wolves, bears and others. Wolves accounted for only 2 percent of the total.

Wolves are demonized, persecuted, trapped, brutalized, snared and slaughtered for having the right to co-exist with man, and survive. Ranchers cry “wolf.” Unfortunately, there is no legal requirement for ranchers to practice animal husbandry that results in a reduction of predator opportunity.

The Wood River Project in Idaho manages a successful sheep and wolf co-existence operation using non-lethal tools to protect 20,000 sheep. Ranchers continue to enjoy taxpayer-funded federal predator control. Such subsidy has allowed ranchers to avoid one cost of production, and crying wolf.

Cecilia Nolthenius

Coeur d’Alene