State House votes to ease killing of Wolves in Oregon

[Mr Wolf25]

The Oregon House has voted to allow state officials to kill wolves that have been blamed for killing livestock.

Do you think this is fair? I'm against it.
Source: http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/feb/ ... re-wolves/

[Larkey]

I don`t think it`s fair either, I mean all the wolves are trying to do is get enough food to live.

[Koa]

I believe it is fair - gray wolves need no special treatment.

I don`t think it`s fair either, I mean all the wolves are trying to do is get enough food to live.

Ranchers are also trying to earn their living and keep their livestock safe.
I don't think the wolves are in particular dire need of food. Wolves are opportunistic feeders and will feed on just about anything - cattle just happened to be in their sights. The gray wolves are at a stable population anyway - killing a few wolves who were most likely either the culprits or too close for comfort to begin with will not put a drastic dent in the population.

[Mr Wolf25]

Indeed, but one thing is being allowed to kill wolves, and another thing is to ease that process, ranchers already kill problematic wolves, but it's quite hard for laws and such things, but to ease that, I don't know, for me it shouldn't be that easy.

[Koa]

It's not easy tracking down individual wolves and killing them. It takes some time, and money for sure - but it's a cheaper solution in the long run than waiting around and the wolves killing more livestock and causing more monetary damage. Shooting them is also cheaper than relocation, which is an ineffective and expensive way of managing wolves.

[Mr Wolf25]

but, there's still the possibility it might increase the wolve's death toll, since it would be easier for ranchers to kill a wolf, and the key in wolf conservation is to keep populations healthy, and to avoid as much as possible any wolf shooting/killing.

[Koa]

but, there's still the possibility it might increase the wolve's death toll, since it would be easier for ranchers to kill a wolf, and the key in wolf conservation is to keep populations healthy, and to avoid as much as possible any wolf shooting/killing.

The key in wolf conservation is to both keep the population healthy and balanced. Regulated gray wolf hunts ("killing and shooting") are put into effect to keep that balance. The current gray wolf population in the U.S. is very stable at the moment.
http://www.fws.gov/midwest/wolf/aboutwo ... fPopUS.htm

A few wolves being shot by ranchers because of their most probable harassment of the livestock will not hurt the population or effect wolf conservation in a negative way.