Host
Jo Gilbert
Podcast Content
The Oregon poisonings this year, which followed other recent deaths of gray wolves across the U.S., came amidst a fierce legal and political battle over how the species should be managed. Oregon authorities are seeking relief after a string of deadly poisonings of gray wolves hit the states shrinking population - deaths that came amid a continuing U.S. debate about how to safeguard the species. Oregon officials are asking the public to assist them to find the man -- or people -- who were responsible for poisoning eight wolves earlier this year in eastern parts of the state. PORTLAND, Ore. - Conservation and animal groups are offering $26,000 combined rewards for information leading to a conviction for intentionally poisoning and killing eight gray wolves earlier this year in eastern Oregon.
The Oregon State Police has been investigating the killings of all five members of the Kathryn Pack of Union County, as well as three additional wolves from other packs, according to a press release issued Thursday by the agency. On Feb. 9, troopers with the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Division found eight gray wolves deceased in a spot southeast of Harris Mountain in Union County.
First, State Fish and Wildlife Division troopers found a full pack of five wolves -- known as the Katherine Pack -- killed with a toxic substance in Union County. Shortly thereafter, two more wolves were found in Union county in April and July, and a toxicology report confirmed two different types of poison on both of those wolves. The Oregon State Police said the toxicology reports confirmed that the eight wolves had two different types of poison.
Oregon State Police investigators found at least eight of the wolves dead, as well as a dead magpie found next to one wolf, according to Oregon State Police. The Catherine pack kill occurred Feb. 9, when authorities were alerted to one of eight wolves collars and discovered five wolves deceased along with the dead magpie southeast of Mount Harris.
Later in April, another male wolf, this time another wolf in the Five Points pack, was found dead outside of Elgin Township. In April, the deceased adult male wolf from the Five Points Pack was found just west of Elgin, while a juvenile female wolf from the Clark Creek Pack was found just northeast of La Grande, the county seat, in July. In July, a young female wolf was found dead northeast of La Grande in Union County, state troopers said.
An entire pack of wolves, consisting of three males and two females, was found dead in February and was later ruled to have been poisoned, state police said. Then, from March through July, authorities found three gray wolves, two females and one male, likewise poisoned to death within Union County, about 275 miles east of Portland.
In April, USFWS confirmed the cause of death for each of the eight wolves was due to poisoning. Three total wolves had died from poisoning before, starting with wolves beginning to return to Oregon in 1999, with the poisoning being either not clear or highly unlikely to be deliberate in two cases.
The eight poisoned wolves so far this year account for about 4.5% of the states total known gray wolf population. Only around 170 wolves are found inside state borders, because multiple conservation groups are offering $2,600 in monetary rewards for any information on poisonings.
It is still unknown how much of an impact the deaths will have on Oregons total wolf population, according to the Fish & Wildlife Department. Oregon state police have been trying since last February to identify the culprit behind the poisoning deaths of eight wolves. Captain Stephanie Bigman with OSP in Salem told The Associated Press that, as far as she knows, Kathryns pack was the first wolf pack fatally poisoned in Oregon.
Wolf attacks on livestock increased this year, according to a Capital Press report, which showed that 87 animals were killed or injured by wolves, including 51 livestock, 28 sheep, six goats and two guard dogs, the paper reported. Since July 1, the state of Oregon has confirmed wolves killed 29 cows, 19 sheep, nine goats and a dog in Oregon.
Six wolves in the Lookout Mountain pack, located in Baker County, were killed earlier this year by Oregon following repeated attacks on livestock in the area. The cattle depredations led the state to approve killings of eight wolves in the Lookout Mountain pack.
A conservation organization said that the provinces use of poison as a method to cull the wolves was inhumane, inadvertently killing too many other animals. Judit Smits, a veterinarian who has a PhD in environmental toxicology, says using strychnine as poison is particularly disturbing. An animal like a moose or a deer is shot, and the carcass is poisoned, said Judith Sampson-French, a veterinarian who was once a conservation biologist for Alberta Fish and Wildlife. Animals other than wolves also eat carcasses and are later killed, a practice that the conservation organization calls unethical and inhumane.