Idaho hunter shoots former Imnaha Pack wolf

[villager]

East Oregonian Publishing Group

EMMETT, Idaho - An Idaho hunter who apparently didn't realize his wolf tag was no longer valid shot and killed a collared male wolf from northeast Oregon's Imnaha Pack.

The man was hunting for coyotes Feb. 2 when he spotted the wolf north of Emmett, near a cattle feedlot and winter calving area. His Idaho wolf tag was good only through 2011, however.

Mike Keckler, communications bureau chief for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said IDFG issued the hunter a warning over the incident "and that's as far as it went." He said the department stopped short of issuing a citation because the hunter received "incorrect information from a clerk from one of our vendor stores."

The clerk led the hunter to believe that his 2011 tag was actually good through remaining months of the current wolf season.

The collar identified the wolf as OR-9, the designation signifying he was the ninth wolf collared in Oregon. According to an email from Russ Morgan, wolf program coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, OR-9 was collared Feb. 26, 2011, in the Grouse Creek area east of Joseph, Ore. He was born to the alpha female of the pack, who had migrated to Oregon from Idaho in 2007.

At the time of the collaring, OR-9 was 1-1/2 years old and weighed about 90 pounds.

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[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I hate these fucking wolf hunts.

They're a crime against nature.

Damn.

[joeybee12]

2. It's fucking insane...

They need to stop NOW

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Yes, they do. Awful.

[villager]

5. Agreed. We need an Interior Sect'y with affinity for wildlife. For starters.

n/t

[Boudica the Lyoness]

10. I agree!

Coyotes should be left alone as well. We farm and have cattle....we get overrun with jack rabbits, deer, gophers etc when things are unbalanced.

[xchrom]

4. Fuckin ignorant asshole. Nt

[Bezukhov]

6. Will he have it for dinner?

Isn't that what they always say? Hunting for food?

[countryjake]

7. So the one who migrated to CA is the only one left?

That wolf kill this winter has me totally disgusted, and the attempted elimination of the Imnaha Pack is a sad commentary on what was a noble project to begin with. I'd heard earlier this Winter that one of them may have entered WA and another went to CA, but then there were another couple of shootings at the end of Jan so it's not clear how many of the pack have actually survived the onslaught of the cattle business.

The picture of the shooter that accompanied that article is bad enough, but some of the comments are vomit inducing:

Wolves should be like other illegals that go across a border. Either send them back to where they came from or allow them to be shot on site.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. That comment about sending them back where they came from?

Hey asshole: They came from here. They were here before we were.

Those people really piss me off.

[countryjake]

14. I know, it raised my hackles, too!

I mean it, literally, the hairs on the back of my neck went up as I read that creep's comment. The implications of such a statement exhibit a disregard for life that is practically incomprehensible.

I'll never understand the thrill that arises from killing any creature of the wild, even the Coyotes the fellow was supposedly hunting...I've lost lots of my own critters to them, but I sure as hell would never murder one for it.

The complete story on just this one Wolf pack is too sad. It's as if those opposed to any attempt to restore Wolves to the Pacific NorthWest were determined to make sure that it failed.

[chrisa]

9. Why hunt wolves?

Do they actually eat them (yuck), or do they just want the fur?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

12. Those people hate the wolves.

They claim that the wolves eat their livestock and also that they eat the big game that brings the tourists.

But mostly, they have an irrational hatred of wolves.

I don't know if the wolves get eaten, though.

[Terra Alta]

11. this is disgusting on so many levels.

Wolves are very beautiful animals.. and this redneck is "proud" of the fact that he killed one. What a monster.

[Doremus]

13. Some people will not be happy until they have eradicated every single creature from the earth.

I just wish for one day the tables could turn and all the animals we kill, torture and exploit could extract some revenge.

99% of them wouldn't though. It's not in their nature.

[villager]

15. It would be a hell of a lot fairer if the wolves could fire back...

n/t

[ellisonz]

16. Shameful. n/t