Medicine of the Wolf Page #5

in the entire United States

in over a hundred years.

Now, the last one just happened

in Minnesota recently,

and they... they shot

and killed the wolf,

and then they... they

tested him for rabies,

he did not have rabies,

but what he had was

he had an incredibly deformed jaw

which prevented him from hunting.

He had been kicked out of his pack,

and he was doing things

that are not normal

wolf behavior for survival purposes.

Management is very much needed.

I suggest that we let

the DNR do their job,

and for those of us that

live in greater Minnesota,

where we have wolves,

where we see wolves,

they're not just little German Shepherds

that live in your backyard.

They're big wolves,

and they're a problem.

I truly believe

that the problem comes from

too many wolves.

I'm not against the wolf,

the wolf is a beautiful animal

when he's where he belongs.

Um, but he's not that beautiful

when he's in my cow yard.

We, um... I see a lot of

T-shirts around here today

that says, "howling wolves" on it,

um, you know if I'm laying

in my bed in a motel

down here in the cities

and I hear a wolf howl,

that's a beautiful sound,

but when I'm layin' in my bed at home,

and my wife and I hear a wolf howl,

it means we better

hit the floor running,

because he's probably after one

of our livestock in the yard.

The concern that the

farmers have expressed

is that their cattle or livestock

will be taken by wolves.

And as a result of that,

they supported wolf hunts

in this state for many,

many years in Minnesota.

We've gone back and we've reviewed

some of the data on this.

There are 165,000 cows and cattle

in wolf territory

in the state of Minnesota.

And that's the principle farming group

that's concerned about depredation,

or the taking of livestock by wolves.

What we learned last year,

and this is very typical...

in 2012, there were

only 81 verified cases

of livestock losses

in the state of Minnesota.

That's 81 out of 165,000.

Now in our judgment, that doesn't

constitute the basis for a hunt.

We understand farmers

are making a living,

we understand many of these farmers

are using non-lethal

techniques, not all,

we strongly urge the USDA

to work more closely

with these farmers,

and the DNR to ensure

that they're taking all

non-lethal actions possible,

and that could mean different

lighting techniques,

flaggery, which is simply small flags

that seem to discourage wolves,

llamas, guard dogs, burroughs,

we know they work, a lot

of research has been done,

both in Minnesota and Wisconsin,

and out west.

Non-lethal methods are effective,

but when they don't work,

we understand the need at times

to take offending wolves,

but that doesn't constitute

the basis for a hunt.

If you've got a wolf, you know,

moving around your farm land,

you need to do something

to strengthen your boundaries,

and reinforce your territory,

so that wolf knows

when he's transgressing

out of his range.

There's the emotional level,

where when our livestock

get predated on,

that we don't overly react emotionally

out of old stories.

So it's negotiating that space, too.

We got lots of folk who are,

sort of, crazy wolf-lovers,

and don't necessarily

always want to appreciate

the reality of what

wolves mean in the world.

Yes, they predate. They are hunters.

They're carnivores.

I handed out for you a story

from the April 7th, 2012 edition

and so you don't have to read

it, I'll just kind of read you

a few quotes out of it.

I had this constituent,

and this is what it says,

she was pruning some

bushes near her deck,

stood up and turned around, and quote,

"and there was a big,

black wolf baring his teeth,

very close, just a few feet away."

She took a few steps towards the house,

but to her dismay, she saw another wolf

smaller, grey, and mangy-looking

about eight feet away,

between her and the house.

She slowly backed away from

both animals to her truck,

as she unlocked her truck, she said,

"the wolves hunched down

and growled at me."

That's a quote.

When she got into her truck,

she honked the horn,

but the wolves stayed put

and barked at her.

Members, that's a real experience,

that are happening, maybe not every day,

but every week

where wolves really live,

because they're over-populated.

The secretary will take the roll.

That was it, so,

they were done, it was a done deal.

And I wasn't sure

what I was going to do.

I left there and I thought,

oh my goodness,

what is going on? And I

approached the legislature,

his name is representative David dill,

he is a democrat out of crane lake,

and I approached him

in the hall near the elevators

and I said, have you considered

the ecological benefits of the wolf?

You know,

even if you're a hunter,

even if you're an angler,

no matter who you are, whether

you're a wildlife viewer,

a hunter, an angler, somebody who

believes in keeping ecology intact,

you have to believe that the wolf

is a necessary part of that.

And he basically said to me,

"oh, nobody's talked about that."

And then he kind of caught

himself, 'cause he realized,

well that's a reason

to have somebody testify.

And he started panicking, seriously.

He was running from the elevator button

when it didn't come right away

to another elevator button,

saying, "there will be

a wolf hunt this year."

And I looked at him, 'cause

he like running away from me,

and I was the only one in the hall,

and I'm a short-statured,

small-statured woman,

and he was much taller, and I said,

I'm not chasing you.

You don't have to run.

But I think he knew that

he was basically facing

what he was gonna face soon.

This year, wolves lost

their endangered species protection.

Wolves keep forests and streams healthy,

they're wilderness allies.

50% of wolf pups die of starvation,

and many wolves are poached.

While Minnesota's original plan

had a five-year waiting period,

a new wolf hunting and trapping bill

is now being passed by the legislature

with no regard to its impact.

We are recklessly

endangering our wolves.

Tell governor Dayton

to stop the wolf hunt.

We are about to lose all that

we worked so hard to save.

Don't silence our wilderness.

Studies suggest that

the wolf became the dog

when wolves began to follow hunters

to scavenge on the kills

that they had left behind.

And in the process, some became isolated

from other wolves, and

migrated along with people.

And over time, the human family

became their pack.

Good girl.

Say goodbye to mama, come up.

I'm gonna miss you.

Be good.

Be a good girl.

Okay.

I think it's safe to say 700, at least,

wolves were killed this season.

So if you look at the rough numbers,

it's about a fourth of the wolves.

- Right? Is that fair?

- Yeah.

A quarter of the wolves.

Yeah.

So, you know, I guess the argument

that a lot of people have

who are concerned about this

is that that's a lot of wolves.

- What...

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