Several members of The Great Old Broads of the Wilderness protested the meeting in front of the Woman's Club on Tuesday evening. Although they were invited to attend the meeting, they declined to participate.

Photos and Article by Mary Alice Murphy

Silver City-Grant County TEA Party Patriots program chairman, Peter Burrows, before announcing the guest speaker, commented on a five-minute YouTube video he recommended those attending the meeting look at. "It's by Trey Gowdy, South Carolina congressman, who is leading the Benghazi investigation. He said: 'We are the House of Representatives and we make the laws.' Actually, I think Congress creates the bureaucracies, and they make the laws. The FCC will make the Internet government-controlled. A judge can decide whether something is legal, and Congress can nullify it, but law is created by bureaucracies."

 

As part of his introduction, Burrows said the Center for Biological Diversity has said it wants 3,000 wolves in all of New Mexico and Arizona. The area has just been expanded, but not above I-40.

Laura Schneberger, president of the Gila Livestock Growers Association, said she would show a short video and then show what is going on with the wolf in "our part of the world."

The video by David Spady, Wolves in Government Clothing, which can be seen at wolvesingovernmentclothing.com, by clicking on film at the bottom of the page, said that fright of the wolf has turned into a fascination that ignores the human element. Several ranchers and residents impacted by wolves were interviewed and included in the film.

"Wolves are destructive to wildlife and livestock," Spady, who narrated the film, said. "Environmentalists, who are thrilled with the wolves, are not the ones that have to deal with them on a day-to-day basis.

"I'm an environmentalist," Spady said. "I want to be outside, hiking and enjoying the outdoors. I was fascinated with wolves, an apex predator and wanted to see them."

But, he said, it is the federal government that has become the apex predator, without taking into account or taking input from the states or those who live in the areas where the wolves were placed.

The video showed a family of four children, waiting for the school bus, inside one of the "kid cages" that were built in Catron County, NM, to keep students safe while they waited for the school bus.

In another part of the video, he showed the 176 dead sheep, killed by wolves in one night. Just killed, not eaten.

"The federal government has put wild animals above humans and the consequences to the animals," Spady said.

Heather Hardy spoke on the film, as the mother of the children in the kid cage. "We are living in a populated area. But one day, we had a wolf chase our Great Dane. I opened the door in time to let our Great Dane in, but slammed the door in the face of the wolf."

Spady said the kill of 176 sheep happened Aug. 17, 2013 on a ranch that had been raising sheep for 130 years. Cindy Siddoway said her son got a call from the sheepherder that something had gotten into the herd. "That something was a wolf or wolves. In two months, we lost 250 sheep, a horse and several dogs to wolves. The government is indifferent to the human toll and the toll on our livestock. The problem is that a great idea to restore the wolf has been hijacked."

U.S. Sen. Jim Risch has taken on the quasi-religious beliefs held by environmentalists and alleges the wolf keeps people out of the forests. "The government is intent on regulating every aspect of our life. The Endangered Species Act, when it passed, was a great thing. No one wanted not to protect endangered species, but there have been unintended consequences. One of the first things that happened was that it put 50,000 loggers out of a job, because of the spotted owl. It cut hundreds of thousands of acres out of timber harvest. The worst nightmare for a farmer or rancher is to find an endangered species on their land. States rights should not be impaired by the federal government."

Steve Titla of the San Carlos Apache Reservation said the wolf is causing great damage on the reservation. "Three times, we told them we don't want wolves. But the wolves came on the reservation and have devastated cattle herds. Before the wolves, we could manage the predators. After the wolves, we have had a huge loss in calf production. Apaches are scared of wolves, because if they do something to a wolf, the government may prosecute."

"This ranch has been here since 1893," Wink Crigler said. "I was once supportive of the wolves. I was not an outspoken critic. I thought we could live with a few. But wolves are wolves, and they are going to eat cattle. The government has introduced a big predator, after we've bred our cattle to be gentle and without horns. It has an element of animal cruelty, sticking gentle cattle in front of a predator, and they can't defend themselves. In the ranching business, we have a bond with our animals and with the land, but our animals do not have a good life. I do not support the presence of the wolf and increased populations. I am in the business of feeding people."

Corwin Hulsey noted that the Defenders of Wildlife said they would pay for livestock killed by wolves. "We had 26 calves missing, and estimated it at a $70,000 loss in just one year. I talked to the Fish and Wildlife Service and asked if they could resolve it. I gave them a bill for the $15,000 I spent in hay, plus $1,000 for fuel to move it. They gave me $1,600 to buy hay, and then at the end of the year, they sent me a 1099. I certainly never expected to have to pay tax on the pitiful compensation. They compensate a little here and there."

"When wolves were here before, there were no houses, no people, no children," Hulsey said. "In New Mexico, they have built little houses to keep children safe at bus stops. There is no place for wolves, unless they are together somewhere where people can look at them, but they don't bother cattle."

Camden Hardy, a teenager in the kid cage, said, more than once, they have gotten on the school bus, while a wolf watched them.

Crystal Diamond recounted her experiences at their ranch and on the road near their ranch. "We had a Christmas tree up and the lights were on, but when I looked again, two eyes of a wolf were right against the window. It spent the night on our front porch. We had two kids and two dogs inside with us. The next morning, there were seven vehicles out front, some from the Fish and Wildlife Service, the county commissioner and sheriff's vehicles. There were wolf tracks in the snow all over our front porch, and it had bedded down under our kid's play equipment, which had a fence around it, but the gate had been left open."

She recounted a trip in her van, with her two children in their car seats. "One is prone to carsickness, so I pulled over, got out, left my door ajar and went to help the sick one to the side of the road. Then I saw the wolf. We got back in the car, and the wolf was circling the van, with me and the two kids in their car seats." She showed photos of the wolf in front of the car.

"The program is funded by our own government," she said, "but it is incompatible with humans and property."

Spady said in the narration, wolves can multiply at 34 percent a year. That makes thousands of wolves feeding on elk, deer and livestock. He said there were 20,000 elk in Yellowstone Park before wolves. Now there are less than 4,000. A private elk herd near the park had 17,000 and it's down to 2,000.

"If there are thousands of wolves, they are not endangered," Spady said. "It's not just the major loss of wildlife, but wolves don't belong where there is civilization, like the Lower 48 states. The government should never put the interests of wildlife before human population."

Siddoway said she supports saving the species, but not to the detriment of the economy. Wink called the re-introduction program a violation of private property rights. Hulsey said he sometimes feels totally helpless.

"The federal government has become the predators," Spady concluded his film. "Like wolves, they work in packs, with no predators. Perhaps we would be in a better position, if we could control the federal government."

Mary Miller, who ranches near Diamond Creek below Wall Lake, spoke in person at the meeting.

"When they re-introduced the wolves, they released the Aspen Pack on us," Miller said. "It was a promising pack for Fish and Wildlife. They bred in the wild and had pups. My husband is an outfitter. We are nature-oriented and enjoy being outside. Wolves are beautiful animals. We were trying to work with the government, because coyotes were hurting the deer population. Then, we got the wolves. They chased our horses. My husband hunts with hounds. As soon as they bay and are on the trail of something, the wolves move in. They have attacked our dogs.

"Wolves are not considered wild animals," Miller alleged. "They were attracted to our animals. We put up the flagging, the fladry; we put bells on our horses and mules. What a joke. The wolves could find them more easily. We tried everything Fish and Wildlife recommended. If we didn't they wouldn't pay for depredation.

"Wolves are not afraid of us," she continued. "We can't shoot them. We are afraid of the wolf and of what would happen to us, if we had to shoot one.

"We left for a few days over Thanksgiving one year," Miller said. "We knew the wolves were chasing our horses, but John Oakleaf of the re-introduction program told us horses were not the wolf's natural prey.

"When we came back, we found our daughter's horse, which had been chased into the corral and killed by wolves," she said. "It had corralled itself trying to get away. The ground was covered with wolf tracks and only the hide and bones were left of the horse."

She said the alpha male of the Aspen Pack, which they called Black Jack, attacked their dogs.

"The feeling of the wolf at the door is true," Miller said. "You can't shoot them. Thank goodness, the Aspen Pack is now extinct."

Schneberger reported the yearly count of wolves at the end of 2014 showed at least 107 wolves. "That is not a maximum number. That is a minimum number as seen from helicopters. We have an exploding population of wolves now. Black Jack went from neighborhood-to-neighborhood killing dogs and livestock. He was deemed responsible for every cow killed in one 24-hour period. In a 24-hour period, it is still called one depredation on one date, regardless of the number killed."

"Wolves will kill a calf, and then tease the mother cow until she is exhausted, and then starts eating on her without killing her," she said.

Schneberger reported Catron County hired a child psychologist, because kids saw their dogs killed by wolves right in their yard. The professional consensus of a study was that wolf management was at fault for causing children and parents to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. She reported the study said 80 percent of the children knew they were helpless to protect themselves, and 80 percent had nightmares because of the wolves. The study recommended immediate removal or translocation of the wolves.

"To this day, Fish and Wildlife has not adequately addressed this issue," Schneberger said. About a photo she showed, she said the wolf was stalking and prey testing. "For the past month, wolves are harassing property owners and pets at Gila Hot Springs. The Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners in the environmental movement call it hype. The government listens to the environmental groups and not to the ones impacted by wolves."

She reported the Mexican gray wolf, in 2014, was removed from being a sub-species, and is now listed as a separate species under the Endangered Species Act, because the large wolf in the northern part of the country was being delisted. "Because the Mexican gray wolf is now a separate species, they want more numbers of them."

"They don't know whether they are a true species or sub-species," Schneberger said. "A wildlife geneticist, Matthew Cronin of Canada said the Mexican gray wolf is actually between the Algonquin and another species in North America.

"We think there is coyote blood in our wolves," she said. She sent around photos that resemble a coyote rather than a wolf, except in size.

"Who decides which science is best?" she asked. "Who decides how it is applied and which agenda to follow?"

She pointed out that the re-introduction area, under the 1998 NEPA analyses always had almost all of New Mexico and Arizona under recovery management. "But just recently, they expanded from I-10 to Mexico to let the wolves expand back into Mexico. They expanded into the Tonto and Cibola National Forests with a fast release. The San Carlos Apache Reservation never agreed to the wolves, and they have lost hundreds of livestock."

She cited the creation of a new Co-Existence Council, which "wants to pay you for the wolf presence on your ranch. Up to 50 percent of a fund is set aside for payment for the presence of wolves, but now 50 percent goes to conflict avoidance, and 25 percent goes to compensation."

Wink is the vice-chairman of the council and she said: "This thing is a farce."

Because not much money is set aside for compensation, the amounts paid are a lot less than adequate, according to Schneberger. She also said because of different program structures, the New Mexico and Arizona committees have had problems working together.

"Basically, it hasn't changed a lot for us since 1998," Schneberger said. "There has been no public input from the ranchers. If you shoot a wolf on deeded land when your livestock is attacked, it's a problem, but less trouble than if you shoot on leased grazing land."

She said Mexican gray wolves average four to six pups a year, but they are not checked until they are a full year old.

Carolyn Nelson, a Glenwood teacher, said some of the other teachers' dogs were bred by wolves. "Coyotes are getting bigger, and it's harder to tell the difference. A man in Catron County was two weeks ago bit by a coyo-wolf. There are definitely some areas in northern Catron County where you can't tell the difference." She reported the man's jacket was swabbed for DNA, but the reports have not come back.

She recommended watching a PBS show on the coyo-wolf. "If we're here to save the wolf, we need to get the mixes out of here."

Schneberger said wolf scat could help determine through its DNA the genetic make-up of the local wolves. "But don't pick it up without rubber gloves. Then put it in a paper or plastic bag. The scat carries diseases that can harm humans. We have had rabid foxes, so I think rabies can be an issue with these large predators." She named two diseases that are found in the northern part of Catron County that will put cysts in the lungs and meat of elk. "If you see cysts in hunted meat you kill, back away from it."

She said livestock growers had been working with the Farm Service Agency to get compensation for wolf-killed livestock, but FWS regional director Benjamin Tuggle told them not to do it.

Another rancher in attendance asked rhetorically how the loss of pounds in cattle, because of wolf harassment, could be compensated. No answer was given.

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