We have proven that non-lethal wolf management strategies work better over the long term in reducing wolf/livestock conflicts than simply killing wolves.
Since the federal government has proposed delisting of all gray wolves and already allowed many Western states to take over lethal management of wolves, there have been over 2,500 wolves killed since 2011.
Thus, "A 2014 study examining livestock data from 1897 through 2012 found that lethal force against wolves actually increased the odds of a wolf attack on sheep by 4percentt and cattle by 5to6percentent.
Several states allow the lethal control of wolves that prey on livestock, and Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming have recently begun to allow wolf hunts.
Same thing with the innocent-looking but nearly lethal BLT that I wolfed down one night in Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1996.
The canine parvovirus, which causes death by dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and endotoxic shock or sepsis, is largely surviveable in wolves, but can be lethal to pups.
For two centuries, as European immigrants moved west across North America, they sought to rid the landscape of any possible threat to themselves, their crops, their livestock; anything with big teeth — bears, wolves, cougars, bobcats — received a lethal round.
Some conservationists were outraged, but the logic behind such lethal control seems airtight: Remove livestock-killing wolves, coyotes, bears, and other predators, and you'll protect farmers and ranchers from future losses.
Following federal delisting of the Western Great Lakes wolf population in January 2012, Wisconsin implemented lethal-depredation control and created the state's first legalized wolf-harvest season in October 2012.
His findings may also lead wildlife managers away from lethal control, which Dr. Treves said is inefficient at getting the wolves that are preying on livestock.
