I think this is an interesting topic. From what little I've read, there seem to be compelling arguments on both sides. I've noticed that most people seem to feel strongly one way or the other with few moderates, so I'm sure some of the arguments on both sides are biased. Anyway, to add balance to this thread I'm going to play devil's advocate and post an excerpt from a thread on a hunting web site. They're discussing Wyoming, but there are discussions on other sites about Idaho, Montana, etc., with similar claims.
To answer the original question, rhetorical though it may have been, I think it's obvious they (the hunters) want to reduce the number of wolves mainly because they both compete for the same game animals. My own belief is that predators of the rifle carrying sort have done an effective job of filling the role of "apex predator", so it wasn't necessary to introduce Canadian Grey Wolves. I don't agree that they should have been eradicated in the first place, but that's history.
And I don't believe the wolves are so shy they won't kill dogs, if the dogs are in the wolves' territory.
Once again, I'm just presenting a counterview [because I enjoy ruffling feathers
]. I make no assertions to the accuracy of the information below.
Wolves impact on your hunting future! - Long Range Hunting - Online Magazine & Forums
> > 1. The US Fish and Wildlife Service introduced a non-native species
> > to the Yellowstone region. The native wolf was the Rocky Mountain
> > Wolf, which hunted in pairs and weighed 80 pounds maximum.
> > The Canadians
> > hunt in packs, sometimes as large as 27 wolves, and weigh in excess
> > of 150 pounds. NOTHING in the region can stand up to them. So the
> > USFWS, controlled by the wolf-worshippers, broke the Endangered
> > Species Act by introducing a non-native species.
> > 2. Wolves did not commonly inhabit Yellowstone.
> > Strong evidence shows
> > that wolves rarely entered Yellowstone in the 77 years prior to 1913
> > (National Park Service Documents, "The Wolves of Yellowstone" Weaver
> > 1978). Also, an official government document, Yellowstone Animal
> > Census, 1912, lists various animals and their numbers, but under
> > Gray Wolves the total is listed as NONE (Hornaday, Our Vanishing
> > Wildlife, pg 336).
> > 3. Wolves don't kill only to sustain themselves.
> > They often kill for
> > sport. In 2005 in one night a lone she-wolf killed
> > 29 sheep in
> > Pinedale. The USFWS came the next day, tracked it down by air from
> > its radio collar and found that it was 20 miles away, so they left
> > it alone. Two weeks later it returned to the same herd and killed 13
> > sheep. At the Camp Creek elk feedground a lone wolf killed five calf
> > elk, eating about 5 pounds of meat. Just having fun.
> > In spring of
> > 2006 about 40 sheep belonging to Jim Magagna were killed in a
> > pasture near Farson, Wyoming. Many many times we have found deer and
> > elk carcasses killed by wolves with only a little bit of meat eaten.
> > My friend, Royce Hoopes, resigned as elk feeder in the Gros Ventre
> > because every morning he would have to shoot 3 or 4 elk who were
> > maimed overnight by wolves. The most common maiming would be that
> > the noses and lips of the elk were eaten off, leaving the elk alive.
> > The wolves would run them out into the deep snow and when the elk
> > were so exhausted they couldn't go further, the wolves would eat on
> > them without killing them.
> > 4. The Dunoir Valley, northwest of Dubois, Wyoming was the home of
> > over 100 moose for the past 60 years. Now there are almost no moose
> > in the Dunoir, the Washakie Pack of wolves having eliminated them.
> > One of the very last moose calves was killed in the Dunoir within 20
> > feet of the house of Budd Betts. It had been living right next to
> > the house trying to avoid the wolves.
> > 5. The Betts family dog was killed on their front lawn in broad
> > daylight by two wolves right in front of Budd and his wife and kids.
> > Budd and a hired hand ran the wolves off by shooting over their
> > heads. You are damned right we are scared of the wolves!!!!
> > 6. The Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd numbered over 19,000 when they
> > introduced the wolves. Now they number about 7,000.
> > The only thing that has changed is wolves.
> > 7. The Final Rule For Introduction of the wolf promised that when
> > there were 100 wolves for 3 years, they would delist the wolf and
> > turn management over to the state. That threshold was met in 2002.
> > There are now over 1,700 wolves. The Environmental Impact Statement
> > examined the effect of 100 wolves on the Yellowstone ecosytem, and
> > 300 wolves in the tri-state areas of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.
> > The present number of wolves exceeds the study by more than 5 times.
> > 8. If you wonder what the wolf is doing to our huntable wildlife out
> > west just do the math. According the feds, each wolf is responsible
> > for killing 1.9 elk per month or the equivalent.
> > That is 20 elk per year killed per wolf. We have, officially, 1,700 wolves. That is
> > 34,000 elk killed by wolves each year. It doesn't take much of a
> > mathematician to understand that there is a crash of epic
> > proportions happening.
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Alpacas?
