Oregon Kills Nearly All Remaining Members of Lookout Mountain Wolf Pack
It is estimated that only 3 out of the previously 11-strong wolf pack remain.
Three more members of the Lookout Mountain Pack, including a yearling and two pups too young to hunt, have been slaughtered by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in response to conflicts with livestock in Baker County.
This is the third time this year that the agency has killed members of this wolf family. Previous deaths include the breeding male, another yearling and three young pups.
“We’re deeply saddened and angered that bullets have reduced this wolf family to a shadow of itself,” said Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Department of Fish and Wildlife killed the mate of the pack’s mother. Forced to hunt alone to feed her two remaining pups, it won’t be a surprise if livestock conflicts continue since livestock are easier to kill for a wolf who has lost her packmates. The agency’s rush to kill wolves only makes things worse for the pack and the livestock operators.”
The Lookout Mountain wolf family consisted of a collared breeding male and female, two yearlings and seven pups born this spring. It is estimated that only 3 out of the previously 11-strong wolf pack remain.
Between mid-July and mid-October, wolves from the pack were implicated in conflicts with farmed cows that resulted in 12 injured or dead calves or steers.
Losses were not discovered by livestock owners for anywhere from 10 days to three weeks after the incidents occurred, even though the Department of Fish and Wildlife says livestock operators are monitoring their livestock and removing sick or injured animals so as not to draw in predators, according to conservation organization, The Center for Biological Diversity.
And since September 17, when the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife killed three wolves from the pack including its breeding male, there have not been any confirmed attacks of farmed cows.
1.28 million cows and 165,000 sheep are raised and farmed in Oregon, while there are less than 200 wolves in the state. Annual confirmed and probable wolf-caused losses on average amount to only 0.001% of Oregon’s animals farmed.
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