Friday, May 17, 2013
Rancher: Wolves killed 31 sheep
Agency issues kill order for predators near Carey
By KATHERINE WUTZ
Express Staff Writer
 Sheep graze on the Flat Top Ranch near Carey. Ranch owner John Peavey said he’s lost 31 sheep in the past week to wolves. Express file photo |
The owner of the Flat Top Ranch near Carey said
Wednesday that he recently lost more than two dozen sheep to wolves
over a two-day period.
John Peavey said numerous lambs and ewes were killed by wolves on Friday, May 10, and Sunday, May 12.
Idaho Wildlife Services State Director Todd
Grimm said Thursday that the final mortality count was at 31—18 lambs
and 13 ewes.
Peavey said a Fish and Game representative
determined that wolves were to blame, rather than another type of
predator. As a result, Grimm said, Idaho Wildlife Services is carrying
out a kill order on “at least” two wolves in the area.
Peavey said the sheep are currently vulnerable
because they are in lambing season, when young lambs and birthing ewes
can become easy prey. One of the ewes killed was in the process of
birthing triplets, he said, and one of the lambs killed was the
first—and only—one of the triplets to be born.
“The guy was probably out of the womb five minutes,” he said. “It was really a heartbreaker.”
Peavey said the lamb, the ewe and the two unborn triplets were killed Sunday morning.
Some wolf advocates argue that Peavey’s method
of lambing leaves his sheep especially vulnerable. Peavey said he
practices “range lambing,” which he calls a “fairly revolutionary”
process. In the process, the herd ranges free, feeding on wild forage.
As ewes give birth, they are split into smaller groups of ewes and
lambs.
“Every day, you create another little nursery,” he said.
Peavey said the nursery groups help socialize
the lambs to other sheep, and that he protects the bands with people,
spotlights and guard dogs that are meant to deter wolves and other
predators.
“There’s only one way to range lamb these
sheep, and that’s what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re putting lots of
extra help out at night, sleeping with the sheep in several locations.”
However, he said he cannot put up flagging—also
known as fladry—to deter wolves, because it tangles in the sagebrush
and is rendered ineffective and difficult to gather back up. He said
guard dogs are effective against coyotes and other small predators, but
that they are less effective against wolves.
“Our dogs seem not to want to confront animals
bigger than they are,” he said. “If the guard dog stands up to the
wolves, they are going to end up probably dead.”
Suzanne Stone, program manager for the Wood
River Wolf Project, said range lambing inherently makes sheep more
vulnerable to predators because of the high number of small groups
scattered across a landscape.
“He would have to have a few hundred people out
there spread over 15 miles, probably even more than that,” she said.
“As long as they are going to use that practice, they will continue to
have high losses to predators. You are putting unguarded sheep with
newborn lambs and scattering them.”
Peavey said his lambs are not unprotected; the
protections have not been effective, he said, and certainly not
effective enough to prevent the wolf attacks. Still, Stone has stated
that the Wood River Wolf Project cannot and will not help Peavey reduce
losses if he does not change his practices.
Garrick Dutcher, program director for the
advocacy group Living with Wolves, said Thursday that the only foolproof
way to keep lambs and ewes safe is “shed lambing,” in which ewes give
birth in structures that can be more easily protected.
Dutcher said one option for Peavey could be to
allow ewes to give birth in enclosed pastures adjacent to homesteads,
where producers can hear potential conflicts and dogs can more easily
alert producers to danger.
Range lambing, he said, is the equivalent of
placing a meal in front of carnivores and expecting them not to eat
it—there’s little attempt to effectively separate carnivores and sheep
in that way.
“If you put a lamb burger in front of me, you’d
expect me to eat it,” he said. “People of the Wood River Valley want to
see their wildlife protected, and hope that livestock producers would
implement the necessary measures to prevent conflicts with wildlife.”
Dutcher added that he is sorry to hear of Peavey’s losses.
Peavey said he switched to range lambing
several years ago as a financial choice. He said the operations he’s
seen in Nevada that use the method are “prosperous,” and that allowing
sheep to graze on the range while lambing allows him to save money on
feed.
Without range lambing, he said, he’d be paying $100 per ewe during the season for feed.
“With the dairying that Idaho is experiencing,
you have an incredible demand for high-quality hay,” he said. “The
prices are not going to go down that much. It costs less than a dollar a
day to feed a ewe out on the range.”
Grimm said there are other producers that use
this method, but noted that those producers are not as vulnerable to
wolves as Peavey is.
“They are not the only ones who are range
lambing, but they are the only ones that are exposed to wolves coming on
their private land,” he said.
Grimm said the kill order will be in effect
through mid-July, but that it could be extended if the Peavey ranch
loses more sheep. Sheep were killed in three separate incidents on the
Peavey ranch last year during lambing season.
As of last year, the Little Wood Pack located
in the Carey area was estimated to have two to three adults and no pups.
Grimm said Thursday he’s not certain there is still a cohesive pack
near Flat Top.
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