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Butte residents voice support for wolf hunts
Posted: Feb 18, 2010 5:04 PM by Melanie Yuill
Updated: Feb 22, 2010 7:26 AM
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- Butte residents voice support for wolf hunts
We continue our "Living with Wolves" series with finding out how residents in the region feel about wolves. Should they be hunted or not? Reporter Melanie Yuill talked to local residents to find out what the consensus is on the issue.
Paul Hanson has had 56 of his animals killed by wolves and several more injured. One night, the Hanson Livestock owner lost 18 lambs to wolves.
"They'll walk away 90 percent of the time and never eat anything just kill ‘em and go. If they would kill one and leave that wouldn't be quite so bad, but they kill so much and eat nothing. So I'm not saying we should annihilate the wolf, but I think we need to have some strict control," Hanson said.
People around Butte seem to agree that hunting wolves is the way to control them.
One of the people who expressed that opinion was Rick Young, a hunter and the assistant manager at Bob Wards.
"It's a good thing. There's too many of them out there, and they need to be hunted," Young said.
Ray Nichols at Bugs n Bullets agrees.
"Hunting is about the only way we can manage them without causing taxpayers a lot of money," Nichols said.
Locals are also agreeing that wolves are killing too many ranch animals like Hanson's cows and sheep and that's why they should be hunted.
"If people are losing their living, their stock or animals, they should be hunted and taken care of cause that's what's people's living," Butte resident Kourtney Mattix said.
"I believe that they're really attacking the ranchers animals and that and it's devastating to them cause their livelihood depends upon that," Butte resident Bill Parke said.
What people aren't agreeing on is how many wolves should be hunted. The quota for 2009 was 75.
"They populate. They're not as bad as rabbits, but they still populate, so it'd take quite a bit more," Mattix said.
"I believe that's plenty, yes. I'd hate to see them go after anymore, and let's get some statistics after they do it and see how it work," Parke said.
But for Hanson, he's not sure if wolf hunting will really solve the wolf problem on his ranch.
"It's kind of a deal where they're making money off something that's a predator and until there's some control on them, I don't think it's gonna make that much difference," he said.
Hanson would prefer the wolf be dealt with like any other predator with a government trapper who comes in and takes care of all the wolves causing problems, but Hanson does agree with other people that the wolves definitely do need to be taken care of.
"They're just gonna keep growing and growing and other animals that are out there that we hunt, deer and elk, and the livelihood of the ranchers is gonna go by the wayside. They're just too destructive," Young said.
Despite the local support, Fish, Wildlife and Parks says a future wolf hunting season for 2010 is still uncertain.
len at Feb 19th 2010 9:26 AM
Not that stock producers have the time .......A REAL ,, Lssting testament to Wolf Kills would be for the ranchers and farmers to Hang the killed . and or partialy eaten along the right of way of the roads close to towns so the media and all those wolf Lovers can SEE The carnage and have it IN THEIR FACE ! Serious Losses call for Serious Measures.............