A little more than two weeks ago, the director of the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife ordered the killing of one or two wolves in southeast Washington after a series of attacks occurred on livestock.
Before the June 23 order was carried out, wildlife officers found one wolf already dead.
The adult uncollared male had been illegally shot likely two days before the order, according to Fish and Wildlife. On June 30, agency officials killed a second wolf as part of the lethal removal operation. The agency’s police are investigating the illegal shooting.
Amaroq Weiss, the senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said it’s “disappointing” the agency removed a second wolf because there were no further attacks after the first wolf died.
Weiss said the agency should have paused and evaluated whether that death proved to be a deterrent.
The agency removed the second wolf because the first wolf could have been shot before the order was authorized, said Shubh Bhattacharjee, wolf and grizzly policy lead with Fish and Wildlife. The kill order was in place when they found the dead wolf and the agency opted not to kill a third, he said during a Wolf Advisory Group meeting on Monday.
The situation unfolded as state wildlife officials were already working to clarify one of the most contentious questions in wolf management: when can a livestock owner legally shoot a wolf?
Gray wolves in Washington are considered endangered under state law. Though gray wolves in the eastern third of the state were federally delisted in 2011, legal protections still apply to the entire state.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife is updating its “Caught in the Act” rule that allows owners of domestic animals to lethally remove a wolf if it is attacking livestock, but only in the eastern third part of Washington state.
As now written, owners of domestic animals, owner’s family members, an owner’s employee or the agent of an owner can kill one gray wolf without a permit if it’s caught attacking livestock.
The agency received input on the rule Monday from the Wolf Advisory Group, a 17-member panel of hunters, livestock producers and environmentalists.
The word “agent” was a point of contention.
“It does make it harder to enforce this rule the way it is currently written,” said Anis Aoude, game division manager at Fish and Wildlife. “We don’t want anybody to be able to go out there and shoot a wolf that’s attacking livestock.”
Conservationists fear the ambiguity of the word could lead to poaching or legal loopholes and ranchers want to protect their livestock in real time without bureaucratic hurdles.
A Fish and Wildlife employee suggested modifying the language to include “documented agent” to ensure that whoever would kill the wolf would be a known person to the owner.
“I struggle with why it matters who does it if they’re catching them in the act,” said Samee Charriere, livestock producer in southeast Washington and WAG member. “I mean, we have lots of people that pull over on the side of the road apparently and kill coyotes … have no idea who killed them, but sometimes you’re grateful for it when there’s cows calving.”
Lynn Okita, an environmentalist and advisory group member, said she fears a livestock producer would allow a hunter to come onto their property and kill a wolf even if it wasn’t attacking livestock.
“We know it has happened,” she said. “I’m just saying there’s the potential for ‘agent’ to be misconstrued.”
Sierra McKinley, another livestock producer in southeast Washington, said she felt that the agency doesn’t trust livestock producers and that they shouldn’t have to maintain a list of every person who goes on their ranch.
“Let me be clear: this is not even legal for cougar,” said Aoude. “This is more permissive than even the cougar rule is,” which allows only the owner of livestock to kill one cougar or black bear caught in the act of attacking within a 12-month period.
The Wolf Advisory Group did not complete its review of the proposed changes to the rule and there is no date for when the update will be finalized.
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