The Whaleback Pack is one of three families of wolves currently living in California. Wolves were never actively reintroduced in this state; instead, foundational populations were released in central Idaho and Yellowstone in 1995 and 1996, then made their way into Oregon and dispersed down. In most states where wolves roam, packs that repeatedly harm livestock can be legally hunted, whether by wildlife departments, hunters or ranchers themselves. However, the California Endangered Species Act has fully protected them here since 2014. That makes it illegal for private citizens to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap or capture them — no matter how many cattle turn up half-eaten.
California’s compensation program will soon begin compensating ranchers who implement deterrents. But that money has been a long time coming; Gliatto says she was promised reimbursement for the range rider months ago, but has yet to see a dime. Still, she’s hopeful that the new data from the collared wolves will help with another aspect of the program called “pay for presence,” where ranchers are reimbursed for the impacts of wolves simply being around, such as stress on the animals.
Of course the state is taking its sweet time in paying ranchers for the damage caused by wolves, even though the amounts are inconsequential in the big picture.
The result of this bureaucratic sloth is not surprising. Why wait for the state to dick around with you when you can take care of the problem yourself?
A fourth California wolfpack, the Shasta Pack, vanished after ranchers reported seeing pack members feeding on a dead calf. That led wolf advocates to suspect the pack fell victim to the “3 S” method of herd protection — “shoot, shovel and shut up.”
Well then, if you don't want that, pay the ranchers full value for lost cattle, plus 20%, immediately. Sure, someone will try to get the state to pay for lost cattle the wolves didn't eat, but that's a cost of having the wolves back in town and keeping them there.
But does anyone listen to me?
Why are those clowns wearing masks?
ReplyDeleteto show each other how virtuous they all are.
DeleteA friend of mine mentioned just last night that it's illegal to shoot gray wolves here in Nebraska. He went on to tell of an acquaintance of ours who ten years ago claimed he saw a gray wolf and the Game and Parks guys denied that possibility. Last summer here in NE Nebraska my wife and I were in the garden behind the house when we heard a peculiar howl. My old dog who fears nothing had her hackles up so I grabbed a gun and popped off a few rounds at which point the howling ceased. I told another friend of mine about the howl and he just said "wolf". The jackasses who introduced these animals into the states should be kicked in their asses repeatedly and then SSS'd.
ReplyDeleteExactly.
DeleteFriggin' wildlife biologists continuing to harass wildlife while acting as if they doing something worthwhile. If any of us did that we'd be prosecuted, our house, truck, and firearms would be stolen...err..."confiscated". Leave the animals alone you bums.
ReplyDeleteIf only the government were 1% of its current size....sigh. When the government can do things such as this, rural people are at the mercy of those who have no understanding of how life outside the urban areas works. They have the numbers to make any such foolishness they want happen.
ReplyDeleteOf course California is taking its time paying for wolf-killed cattle; they're trying to discourage cattle ranching in order to save the planet.
ReplyDeleteI approve of "SSS" and hanging the tracking collar on any convenient interstate 18-wheeler headed east.
Gut shoot them so they run off and die. You don't want to be caught with a collared dead wolf on your property.
ReplyDeleteDid you say something?
ReplyDeleteA grizzly bear is on the state flag, because they used to be native to Califrutopia.
ReplyDeleteUsed to be.
They were not eliminated by globull warming.
Marine biologists noted as far back as the 1980s unsurprisedly that California sea otters, which snack on abalone, had a range south along the coast from Monterey Bay to a point exactly half the distance commercial abalone fishermen's boats could travel north from homeports in SoCal.
The abalone fishermen all carried shark rifles on their boats.
The cute little otters got their meals to a certain point, and the fishermen all had rich abalone beds below that point, and do to this day.
And that was all that was said about that.
Wolves in Califrutopia?
They'll be extinct again, and again, and again, until the under-edumacated idiots from academia stop trying to re-introduce them to farmland, unless they can breed bulletproof wolves.
The collars will all catch freight trains to Chicago. ;)
Dulce et decorum est.
OTOH, if they want to start dropping off grizzlies and cougars in the 'hoods and barrios where urban yutes predate, it could get interesting to watch, from assorted Ring camera footage.
Purely for informational purposes, any collar that can be picked up by satellites can be DF'ed on the ground by most competent HAM radio transistor-heads.
DeleteJust saying.
Not a very big wolf. I have personally seen larger from a very uncomfortable distance.
ReplyDeleteA wolf collar tossed atop an out-of-state SUV could cause a few questions. Oh oh! Number 327A is approaching Winnemucca, heading east at 75 miles an hour.
ReplyDeleteNow if coyotes were dropped off in Sacramento the same way illegals are....
ReplyDeleteWhat makes you think they aren't there already?
DeleteShoot. Leave small IED under Carcass.
ReplyDelete