This is what happens when you let your hounds run free

6 dogs killed by wolves in East Idaho and yet the hunters blame the wolves!

• By David Ashby dashby@journalnet.com
• 05.21.2016

Six hunting hounds have been killed by wolves in an isolated location in Madison County over the past few weeks.

The hounds were killed in two separate incidents near White Owl Butte east of Rexburg. In both instances, three hounds were killed. According to Idaho Department of Fish and Game spokesman Gregg Losinski, the houndsmen were using the dogs to hunt for black bears in Game Management Unit 62.

The hounds were allowed to run loose and pursue black bears. But when the hunters caught up with their dogs, the hounds were dead.

“The incidents occurred about a week apart, and each location was about four miles apart,” Losinski said. “By wolf measurements, that’s not very far.”

Losinski said the region is home to a wolf pack, and that the hunters were legally hunting black bears in the area. A similar incident involving wolves occurred in the same area in 2014.

There is no open wolf season right now in Unit 62, but the hunters would have been in their legal right to shoot the wolves if they had seen them harm their hounds.

“Wolves consider any other canines as rival wolves, and in their world, it’s kill or be killed,” Losinski said.

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