Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife has authorized the killing of two more wolves in northeast Washington. Meanwhile, an environmental group has gone to court to get more protection for the wolves.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife says the Togo pack has been involved in at least four depredations during the last 10 months. The last case was discovered June 6. A calf was injured in the Kettle River area in Ferry County. The agency says it had bite marks and other signs of a wolf attack. It says the animal’s owner had tried non-lethal means to deter the wolves, but that hasn’t worked.
And now the agency says it will allow the wolves believed to have carried out attacks to be killed. It says it will try a combination of means to achieve that goal. It will issue a kill permit to the landowner or see if its own staff can do the deed.
Separately, this week, three conservation groups sued to get the Forest Service to protect wolves living in the Colville National Forest. Among other things, the lawsuit challenges the agency’s decision to issue grazing permits to the Diamond M Ranch. The groups say that ranch is responsible for the vast majority of the two dozen or so wolf kills carried out during the last eight years.