Photos by Paul and Judy Canik of Butternut, WI of sheep killed by wolves on their farm.
Farmers, wildlife experts, and most people attending a special meeting want wolves taken off the endangered species list.
The Great Lakes Wolf Summit was held Thursday in Cumberland, Wisconsin to discuss escalating wolf problems, which have only become worse since a federal judge placed grey wolves back on the list in 2014.
Farm Bureau Director Mark Liebaert describes wolf losses at his beef operation.
Mark Liebaert is the Douglas County Wisconsin County Board Chair, a Wisconsin Farmer’s Union board member that raises beef, finishing them on pastures. He’s seen first-hand several times this year how a federal judge’s decision to put wolves back on the endangered species list has the impacted animal agriculture. Liebaert told Brownfield he’s powerless to protect his cattle because of the federal judge’s order putting wolves back on the endangered species list. “If my neighbor’s dog comes over and starts chasing my cattle, state law allows me to shoot that dog, yet I can have a wolf attacking my calves and killing them, and I can’t even confront it in a way that would make a problem for it. I can’t shoot it. I can’t harass it.” Liebaert says wolves are killing machines, describing the last incident on his farm. “That wolf weighed 85 pounds. It carried my calf, which is about 125 pounds. It carried that calf off the field in its mouth. It broke its back in one shake.” Liebaert says the wolves also hurt his beef business on the bottom line, saying when cattle are stressed, they get close together to try and protect the calves, which means they’re not eating… and when they’re not eating, they’re not gaining needed weight. Liebaert told Brownfield it can be as much as 100 pounds less total weight or around 80 pounds dressed, and that adds up fast. He says that means his customers are getting less beef and he’s getting less money.
Ryan Klussendorf operates a dairy farm near Medford Wisconsin, and says wolf predation has cost him far more than livestock. There’s animal stress, sheriff’s department calls about loose cattle, and a huge expense. “We now keep all of our calves up in the barns or close to buildings. Looking back on financial records, we know it’s costing us $31,000 dollars a year to do that over keeping them out on pasture and rotating them around the farm in a grazing system.” That’s just for two groups of twenty calves and another group of about 40 bred heifers.
Paul and Judy Canik of Butternut, Wisconsin raise sheep. He described how wolves killed off some of their guard dogs, and later killed 17 expecting ewes in one night without eating any of them. That’s a loss of about a thousand dollars an animal, and five times that for a top ram.
Jim Holte
Jim Holte is President of Wisconsin Farm Bureau, and farms in Dunn County near Elk Mound. He says farmers have their hands tied. He also told the group wolves are causing livestock stress resulting in lost pregnancies and lower pregnancy rates, impacting farmers in much of the state. Farmers Union also wants wolves delisted from the endangered species list again, saying the states had a sound, science based management system.
Deputy Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Secretary Kurt Thiede says the grey wolf has recovered, and no further protection is necessary. He told the attendees there is no biological justification for additional endangered species act protection, and that Wisconsin used sound science during the three years of its management plan. He estimates there are presently close to 900 wolves in Wisconsin, and cited reports of 618 in Michigan and another 2,200 in Minnesota. He says this region’s wolf population now is second only to Alaska.
Public safety issues because of wolves are also real. Bruce Mahler is in law enforcement in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, in Marenisko Township in the Gogebic Lake area. He’s had 43 calls since January about wolf problems around people and homes. Several deer kills have been reported in back yards. Mahler says many families don’t let their children play outside, and most people feel they have to carry a gun when walking their dogs. Mark Liebaert added to that, saying the city of Duluth has reported a 16% increase in wolf vs. dog conflicts in the city limits.
Karen Laumb
Karen Laumb resides near the Twin Cities and grew up with farm roots in Chippewa County, Minnesota. Laumb says she understands both sides, but does not support returning to state wolf management like the majority of those attending. She thinks wolves are fascinating animals, and the wolf is here for a reason, playing an important part of the ecosystem. She believes there may be a lot of misinformation and fear out there, and wants to learn more. Laumb says, “There are a lot of different people with different motivations in that room. Some are farmers with true concerns, really personally and sincerely held concerns about the effects on their livestock. That’s real. But, then there are also some people in that room, maybe, that just want to go out and kill wolves, just pure recreational hunting.”
The keynote speaker at the event was attorney, author, and former Texas Democratic Senator Ted Lyon, who says this problem could have been fixed by now. Lyon wrote, “The Real Wolf” about his experience with wolves, big game, and livestock in the western U.S.
Ted Lyon
He says Wisconsin has the third most powerful person in Washington in Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and he could get it done “with a snap of his fingers.” Legislation has been written by Wisconsin Republican Congressman Reid Ribble and Minnesota Democrat Collin Peterson, as well as Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson. If passed, any of those bills would return wolf management to the states without review by the courts. Lyon believes the ruling stripping Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan’s wolf management plan is shaky at best.
About 200 people on both sides of the wolf issue attended the Great Lakes Wolf Summit in Cumberland, Wisconsin. Most attending supported delisting wolves and returning management to the states.
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