Wolf protection, animal damage control, and realistic humane goals

Karlyn Atkinson Berg, Humane Society of the United States, 44781 Bittner Point Road, Bovey, MN 55709, USA

Various positions are being taken on how to address future protection of the wolf, if or when the wolf is removed from the Endangered Species List. Environmental and wildlife groups are themselves divided on the proposed wolf management policies they may support. A concise summary will identify some of the critical issues wolf protection organizations need to address. Controversies that need to be resolved are public hunting and trapping, landowner open season, enforcement, and non-lethal methods of depredation control.

Because wolf/human/livestock conflict is one of the most ciritical problems facing the Minnesota wolf population, this paper will principally focus on a recent analysis of wolf depredation and control programs. This analysis was commissioned to identify types of preventative, humane or non-lethal control, and investigate the viability of non-lethal control techniques, and submit a preliminary evaluation of those methods that may appear to have some practical application. Topics included in this discussion are verification, compensation awards, best management husbandry practices, and include comments from ranchers, western predator groups, and scientific sources. An outline of existing studies on non-lethal techniques and control programs that exist in other countries will be included.

This paper will review the history of wolf control, but highlight the informtion from two wolf depredation video projects. This discussion will define "control" as methods of depredation control distinct from population wildlife management methods, and consider the relationship between public hunting and trapping and Animal Damage Control. This evaluation will also identify what current control methods are not acceptable to wolf protection groups and why they now propose the existing Animal Damage Control program undergo a thorough review.

Interest in the wolf has increased dramatically over the past three decades, yet the future survival of the wolf remains controversial and uncertain. The wolf remains a powerful symbol of the failure of humans to genuinely desire co-existence with nature. Wolf groups need to consider, what has inspired so much pressure for killing wolves and if those demands are in reasonable proportion to actual conflicts? Are species, especially carnivores, losing ground to the new compromise policies? Or, can we find ways to alleviate wolf conflicts and produce an ecologically sound plan based upon preservation of bi-diversity, environmental ethics, and responsible stewardship towards this national treasure, the wolf.