[Vision2020] a Ranchers perspective on wolves

[lfalen]

This was a letter to LMT
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I am responding to today's article you wrote on wolves.  It seems to me you really do not have a clue what it takes to make it financially in the livestock industry. We realize that those of you who live in town and have a desk job have nothing to lose. I agree with you that bear and cougar are also top of the food chain and when over populated are a problem to people and to wildlife. 
  I don't think wolves or cougars or bear will probably be going up and down main street in Grangeville. You probably do not have a thing to worry about. We do not ALL live on the city sidewalk in any town. Those of us who live rural do see all kinds of wildlife, including wolves, bear, deer, elk, moose. I have photographs of most of those species myself.
 In the first place we were not given the opportunity to VOTE on the introduction of the CANADIAN wolf. Wolves hunt in packs so animals do not have a chance to escape. They maime animals and leave them to die in a horrid fashion--not all attacks end in the animal being killed and eaten. We had a smaller native Idaho wolf and that specie is no doubt extinct as the LARGER wolf from Canada was introduced.
Environmentalists have put Idaho on the endangered list.. from mining, logging, farming, to ranching. There is an unrealistic idea of tying the hands of rural Idahoans to benefit the big  city folks. We don't get that. That is what is out of balance here.. out of state deep pocket folks telling us how to live here, changing our laws and way of life. 
IF you went to the people who know first hand the destruction and appetite of wolves, you might change 
your mind on us needing them. IF it was YOUR dog or YOUR horse or YOUR calves or sheep that was devoured it would probably change your mind in a heart beat. 
IF this article was meant to be funny, it was not.
 
Too many of you have the idea that wolves or bear or cougar are only eating the old and sick. That is not the true nature of these species. The young are the easiest prey and the tastiest. Predators are not stupid. 
 
My family has been in the Idaho and Montana wilderness areas horseback with pack strings for many years. My family has hunted in all the areas of north Idaho. The big game animals of Idaho are being severely threatened with all the top of the food chain predators going for the calves. There will be no yearlings and two year olds and so on at the rate they are being killed. The Lochsa and Selway and all points between will be dead zones yet with no wildlife left. As the wildlife disappears then of course the livestock ranchers raise are going to be under attack even more. WE own our land and pay taxes on it. We do not want to raise wolves! I would rather eat a deer or elk or moose any day than a mangy wolf.  Of course I imagine you go to the grocery store to buy beef for your table...
 
 
Gayle Marek
1010 Three Bear Rd.
Kendrick, Idaho 83537
gmarek at tds.net
208-289-4891
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From: rafalen <rafalen at turbonet.com>
Subject: letter Gayle wrote LMT
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 18:56:40 -0700
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