Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) officials have ordered the killing of the members of the Old Profanity Territory (OPT) family.
Why? To protect cows grazing on public lands.
Last September, WDFW killed two members of the OPT family in an attempt to stop livestock attacks.
When the depredations continued, officials attempted to kill the remaining two wolves but were unsuccessful. Director Kelly Susewind then paused action seeking to lethally remove the two remaining wolves from the OPT pack.
Beyond being cruel and in violation of the desires of a majority of Americans, these kill orders are not working.
“WDFW has been killing wolves to deter conflict since 2012 when the agency wiped out the entire Wedge Pack, yet depredations on livestock continue,” said Maggie Howell, executive director of the Wolf Conservation Center. “Peer-reviewed research demonstrates that killing predators is not only an ineffective solution to deter depredation on cows, but it can even result in increased attacks.”
Abstract
"Livestock owners traditionally use various non‐lethal and lethal methods to protect their domestic animals from wild predators. However, many of these methods are implemented without first considering experimental evidence of their effectiveness in mitigating predation‐related threats or avoiding ecological degradation. To inform future policy and research on predators, we systematically evaluated evidence for interventions against carnivore (canid, felid, and ursid) predation on livestock in North American and European farms. We also reviewed a selection of tests from other continents to help assess the global generality of our findings. Twelve published tests – representing five non‐lethal methods and 7 lethal methods – met the accepted standard of scientific inference (random assignment or quasi‐experimental case‐control) without bias in sampling, treatment, measurement, or reporting. Of those twelve, prevention of livestock predation was demonstrated in six tests (four non‐lethal and two lethal), whereas counterintuitive increases in predation were shown in two tests (zero non‐lethal and two lethal); the remaining four (one non‐lethal and three lethal) showed no effect on predation. Only two non‐lethal methods (one associated with livestock‐guarding dogs and the other with a visual deterrent termed “fladry”) assigned treatments randomly, provided reliable inference, and demonstrated preventive effects. We recommend that policy makers suspend predator control efforts that lack evidence for functional effectiveness and that scientists focus on stringent standards of evidence in tests of predator control."
Source
WDFW knows that peer-reviewed research demonstrates that killing predators is not only an ineffective solution to deter depredation on cows, but it can even result in increased attacks on livestock by survivors.
Killing state-endangered wolves on to benefit the profit margins of a private business is wrong on every level.
Please contact WDFW Director Kelly Susewind before it’s too late and respectfully ask him to call off the kill order.
CALL 360-902-2200 E-mail director@dfw.wa.gov
Source
Why? To protect cows grazing on public lands.
Last September, WDFW killed two members of the OPT family in an attempt to stop livestock attacks.
When the depredations continued, officials attempted to kill the remaining two wolves but were unsuccessful. Director Kelly Susewind then paused action seeking to lethally remove the two remaining wolves from the OPT pack.
Beyond being cruel and in violation of the desires of a majority of Americans, these kill orders are not working.
“WDFW has been killing wolves to deter conflict since 2012 when the agency wiped out the entire Wedge Pack, yet depredations on livestock continue,” said Maggie Howell, executive director of the Wolf Conservation Center. “Peer-reviewed research demonstrates that killing predators is not only an ineffective solution to deter depredation on cows, but it can even result in increased attacks.”
Abstract
"Livestock owners traditionally use various non‐lethal and lethal methods to protect their domestic animals from wild predators. However, many of these methods are implemented without first considering experimental evidence of their effectiveness in mitigating predation‐related threats or avoiding ecological degradation. To inform future policy and research on predators, we systematically evaluated evidence for interventions against carnivore (canid, felid, and ursid) predation on livestock in North American and European farms. We also reviewed a selection of tests from other continents to help assess the global generality of our findings. Twelve published tests – representing five non‐lethal methods and 7 lethal methods – met the accepted standard of scientific inference (random assignment or quasi‐experimental case‐control) without bias in sampling, treatment, measurement, or reporting. Of those twelve, prevention of livestock predation was demonstrated in six tests (four non‐lethal and two lethal), whereas counterintuitive increases in predation were shown in two tests (zero non‐lethal and two lethal); the remaining four (one non‐lethal and three lethal) showed no effect on predation. Only two non‐lethal methods (one associated with livestock‐guarding dogs and the other with a visual deterrent termed “fladry”) assigned treatments randomly, provided reliable inference, and demonstrated preventive effects. We recommend that policy makers suspend predator control efforts that lack evidence for functional effectiveness and that scientists focus on stringent standards of evidence in tests of predator control."
Source
WDFW knows that peer-reviewed research demonstrates that killing predators is not only an ineffective solution to deter depredation on cows, but it can even result in increased attacks on livestock by survivors.
Killing state-endangered wolves on to benefit the profit margins of a private business is wrong on every level.
Please contact WDFW Director Kelly Susewind before it’s too late and respectfully ask him to call off the kill order.
CALL 360-902-2200 E-mail director@dfw.wa.gov
Source
STOP KILLING THE WOLVES!!! THEY NEED TO BE PROTECTED!!!
typical uneducated government, kill,kill is all they know. Get the farmers off their asses and have cowboys watch the cattle, and scare the wolves with non-lethal methods. These wolves deserve our respect and compassion and most Americans want them protected so STOP THE KILLING.