willy49Leader1h
I live about 100 miles south of Yellowstone. Thus far this year, I have had wolves kill four of my cattle and rip the hamstrings out of one more, which I had to put down. All on my privately owned property. The value of a springer heifer is about $2500 at auction. So, I have "donated" about $12,500 to the survival of the wolves. There are ample deer for them to hunt on my property, but, they bypass them for the ease of killing a cow.
I anticipate that I will lose about another 7-10 head this winter, another $20-25000 investment in the survival of the wolves.
How much are you freaking wolf lovers investing in their survival? Not a damned dime, that is what. Just a bunch of words from y'all who do not know a damned thing about economics but imagine every animal is like in the Garden of Eden when they all, supposedly, never killed other animals. Bunch of city folks who do not know a damned thing about where your food comes from.
NEWSFLASH: Every food item has a source BEFORE it gets to your local supermarket.
Reply
ThoughtfulVoterLeaderwilly491h
Are you compensated for the loss? I know in some states there are such programs.
willy49LeaderThoughtfulVoter1h
Not for wolves. That was part of the management plan that was rejected by the courts in Montana.
ThoughtfulVoterLeaderwilly491hEdited
That is unfortunate, I know Oregon pays ranchers if they lose an animal.Takes the sting out of the issue. Oregon does a pretty good job of resource management.
TinleyLeaderThoughtfulVoter1h
I think Montana's plan (the courts anyway) was to simply manage the wolf population (and save money), but at the expense of the ranchers who were actually experiencing losses. Managing the wolf population is fine, but those plans don't come together over night. That's why proactive management is so important. The problem is, wildlife managers look at conservation as a whole and not just by individual species, while activists look at the individual species. You can't view conservation that way.
TinleyLeaderwilly491h
Have you experienced any indirect effects from wolves? By that I mean things like lower scores on your cattle and calf weaning weights.
willy49LeaderTinley1h
Not a significant drop in fall weights, still around 400#. However, I have experienced an increase in calf mortality rate from the cows in the field that are the victims of the wolf attacks. The stress of being chased by them affects their ability to nurture their calves the first few months. I do have a higher rate of "orphan" calves where the mother refuses to accept the newborn than the average in the state where wolves are not a problem.
TinleyLeaderwilly491h
The reason I ask is, there was a study conducted (I wasn't on the study but knew some who were) in Idaho and Oregon to determine the true impact of wolves and cattle populations. Stress was one of the indirect effects of the wolf population. That's actually what I meant when I mentioned calf weaning weights, but asked it the wrong way.