Dog killed by wolves in Idaho City close to homes

by Andrea Lutz

KTVB.COM

Posted on May 27, 2014

BOISE COUNTY— Officers with the Idaho Fish and Game are asking Idaho City residents to keep a close eye on their pets after a dog was killed after a wolf attack.

Idaho Fish and Game Wildlife Manager Craig White said the attack happened sometime in the evening of May 21.

A young female came home from work that evening at around 11 p.m. to find a wolf in her driveway off Blue Heron and Highway 21. Then a short time later, one of her two dogs were missing.

Fish and Game officer Bill London, who responded the morning of May 22, found dog and wolf tracks near the home where the attack was reported. Officials say there was evidence the dog was carried off by one of the wolves.

John Mogus lives next to the woman's whose dog was killed and said he knows that wolves frequent the woods nearby, but he has never seen them come too close. “(I) know they are all around. They just don’t usually come right around here,” he told KTVB Tuesday. “We have two little dogs too and so we are concerned about them."

White said officers believe there were about three wolves involved in the fight with the small sized dog, and this comes off the heels of other wolf sightings in Idaho City in recent weeks.

The animals are believed to be part of a pack that began roaming the area near Idaho City several years ago. “We don’t know specifically which pack,” he explained. “We have a pretty good idea of which pack, but there is quite a few packs in the history of the last 15 years of wolves on the Boise National Forest.”

As White explains wolves tend to see dogs as a threat. “Wolves are, as you know, a member of the dog family, and wolves are very much pack oriented, and that means they operate as a unity but they also defend the territory,” said White.

However, Mogus believes this recent killing is too close to humans.  “They aren’t afraid,” he said.

So Mogus wants other Idaho City residents to be careful, and on the lookout for wildlife too close to homes and pets.  “We just more or less want the people that live here and the people that come up here camping to be aware,” he said.

Another dog was killed by a wolf in the Boise foothills May 8.

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