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Loading...British Columbia Joins War on Wolves
The dark shape stood watching us. Outlined against the golden stubble of the hayfield, he was the largest dog we had ever seen. He shifted his attention to our sheep. Studying him through the binoculars, we realized we were watching a wolf. The wolf was watching dinner.
When the wolf crossed an invisible barrier, our two Akbash guardian dogs exploded into action. The male placed himself between the wolf and the flock. The female ran in barking pursuit. Although the female was much smaller than the wolf, the wild canine turned and trotted off. None of our cattle-ranching neighbors had guardian dogs. Their calves were easier prey than our protected sheep.
Wolves are an essential part of the ecosystem. A research collaboration among 22 scientific and educational institutions in six countries “shows how the decline in large predators affects everything from habitat loss to pollution, deforestation, carbon sequestration, climate, the spread of disease, and more.”
Reporting on the research on his Supermarket Guru site, Phil Lempert cites two other examples of the impact of the loss of predators at the top of the food chain: “One case details how industrial whaling may have shifted the diet of killer whales, leading to the dramatic decline of sea lions, seals and sea otters. Another details how the loss of lions in Africa has led to a population explosion in olive baboons, which bring intestinal parasites to humans living nearby.”
Read more: animal welfare, endangered species, environment & wildlife, gray wolf, hunting, wolf
First Photo: Caninest, Second photo: Caninest, Third photo: Metassus
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182 comments
+ add your ownsenseless murder..stop encroaching upon wildlife habitats! Poor animals have nowhere to go :((
lol colleen, ranchers are obviously lazy and uneducated, otherwise they would understand the concept of ecology. No, not all of course, but the large majority. If one rancher can come up with non lethal solutions to the problem, why can,t the rest? Is that not ignorance and laziness?
, stop this war on wolves, stop killing then and blame then for everithing, they fear humans and avoid contact with humans, farmers and cattlers hate then because they eat their livestock, farmers and cattlers don't have any compassion for the wolves. wolves need to eat, is for survival, stop killing then' stop been greedy, this people think only in money, have compasion and let the wolves eat some livestock, stop thinking in money, they are beautiful animals, they deserve to live,stop the barbaric and cruel killing of volves, stop poisoning then, stop the hunters that kill the wolves for sport or for a throphy, hunters are barbaric,cruel, vile heartless people. very sad.
we must end this insanity now.....we gotta use our voices, keyboards, phones, write and email govet. officials, etc. This is crazy! The wolf just doesn't have a chance without us humans...we gotta put an end to the cruel, inhumane slaughter...and believe me, it is just that.
my daughter TanYaisa is a voice for the plight of the wolves in america......she has videos, petitions and links on her myspace and facebook page......please google her and learn some truths about the positive impact wolves have on our eco-system and the balance of our wildlife and environmental needs for the wolf to remain alive and in the wild.........tanya payne
Educate yourselves and others about the true impact wolves have on the wildlife and how vital they are to the eco system, not to forget the tourism industry.....just watch videos of these ruthless inhumane heartless slow torture deaths......slaughters........it must end.....not expand.
Throughout human history we’ve (humans) have arrogant;y encroached on wildlife habitat, killing wahtever was in our way. Some species have been wiped out completely, many heve been brough to the brink of extinction and measures were needed in order to save them. The cycle repeats itself. We’re never wise enough to try and coexist together, to respect their right to existence. It’s easier to kill them off just because we can. This is very sad and degrading for humanity. When we need to justify our abominable actions, we spread the fairy tales about demonic wolves nearly wiping out whole cattle herds. But the statistics CLEARLY show that livestock deaths due to wolf attack are few and far between - somewhere around 0, 23% !!! of the total annual livestock losses in 2010 (Department of Agricultural report http://howlingforjustice.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/wolves-scapegoated-less-than-1-of-cattle-killed-by-native-carnivores-and-domestic-dogs/ ). While I do realize that no matter how low the percentage is, it still means a real and difficulut loss to a particular farmer farmer, WHAT in the hell gives us the right to put our cattle before wolves? When the heck do we STOP being so arrogant ??
All I can say is, what a sad, sad, sick world we live in! If another creature gets in our way, or competes for something WE want, or we just decide that we don't like a particular creature, we just get rid of it, we destroy it! SICK, SICK, SICK!!! A wolf is as beautiful as any dog, in case anyone out there forgot where "man's best friend" came from. Perhaps that's why some wild canines decided to become our best friends, so we would give them food, they would warn us of danger, &, most important of all, we wouldn't kill them! No animals should be targeted & killed, unless they are a direct, immediate threat to your survival. Since our stupid government likes to spend, & WASTE, so much money, why don'y they buy & train guard dogs for every livestock rancher! Oh, but that wouldn't be as "fun" as allowing all the bloodthirsty cowardly "macho" (NOT!!) idiots to get their kicks from another creature's suffering & death! I am so ashamed to be part of the human race, the SCUM of the earth!! And, we are by far, the most sadistic, barbaric species on this planet, & the sad part is the fact that we have the ability to think & reason, & to make choices, but we fail to use those abilities for good.
Colleen; I happen to have been raised on a ranch and I can tell you that ranchers and farmers whose livestock are in peril are generally in high altitudes and those areas are generally leased, government lands. In some areas, wolves were re-introduced where they were considered extinct, at the taxpayers expense. You can research all you want, but research alone doesn't tell you the whole story. I was born and raised in Northern Wyoming and for quite some time, lived in Jackson Hole after leaving the ranching community I was raised. Yellowstone was one of the areas wolves were being re-introduced, now ranchers in areas like Big Horn, Wyoming (where I was raised), have slaughtered wolves through aerial hunting (Sarah Palins preferred mode), vicious, and inhumane, with no chance of wolves escaping, leaving wolf pups to starve to death in their dens. There is a great deal of propaganda Colleen, so again, research is simply not enough. Unless you've lived around it, seen it, been sickened by it, you cannot know!
Those who support these slaughters are fools. Ask Australia what happened in some farm areas when they over cut the dingo population. Do these idiots honestly believe a healthy wolf populations only live off a few meager trimmings now and then from live stock? What do they think will happen to the wolves main diet source when they are gone? Good luck locking up your grain. The high predator population is like the pulse of a natural environment because everything else in the food chain leads up to them.
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