State's slaughter of wolves pushes the wrong button

September 30, 2012

The Wrap by Ron Judd

Seattle Times staff columnist

Any local grad students around who want to write a thesis on crisis mismanagement? Just follow around the state officials in charge of Washington's fledgling wolf-recovery plan.

The Washington state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Aerial Sorties spent much of last week — and God knows how much public money — paying helicopter sharpshooters to exterminate most of the Wedge Pack wolves in Northeast Washington.

This was necessary, they said, to "hit the reset button" on wolf activity in one region where more than a dozen cows and calves from the Diamond M Ranch, which grazes some cattle on remote public lands, had been killed by wolves alleged to be feeding exclusively on livestock.

We know it's a tough dilemma. But, reset button? That's a joke, right?

Surely, the next pack of wolves to move into the area will see the same tasty, lumbering beef blobs, with no extra protective measures taken by a skinflint rancher, and intrinsically know to stay away.
If not, perhaps they'll get the word from one straggler wolf that the state left behind to spread the news. When all else fails, you can usually get wild animals to respond to peer pressure.

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