Recently there was a lady who was jogging in Alaska, who was found dead and partially eaten by wolves, or at least they are the prime suspect in the eating and her dying. There is some talk that the wolves may have been rabid. Supposedly there has never been a case of “healthy’ wolves attacking a human, in the lower 48 states.
Not so in Russia. There is numerous evidence that in Russia people are, or have been in the past, prey for wolves. Maybe Russians have a different idea of “healthy” wolves.
I put the word healthy with apostrophes for the same reason you could say that no “sane” person ever killed another person, with out being provoked, as many would argue that anyone who would murder their fellow man would not be “sane”. Good argument, but I doubt it makes the victim feel any better!
The enviro tree hugging wacko hippies who seem to be in charge of too many things of late in the west, got wolves reintroduced into the Yellowstone Park area some years back. There has been a lot of discussion, fighting and justified anger because of this ever since. There was little if any accommodations made to people living in that area as to what or how they would be reimbursed for loss of private property caused by the wolves. There was lofty talk of how the wolves would bring the balance of nature back, in that area. From what I’ve read since, those who don’t actually live around or have any worries of loss, or who have not lost any private property to or from the wolves are plumb happy with the deal. Especially the Canadians who we bought the wolves from at about $10, 000 per wolf. Seems they had an excess and were more than happy to sell a few. Saved them from having to shoot them, themselves. You see, in Canada, they have plenty of wolves. And evidently not many rifles. And the ones they do have are kept for shooting wildlife. I guess the RCMP does such a fine job of policing up there, no one has to worry about defending themselves from ruffians, thugs or thieves, two or four legged.
My question is this…..why did we reintroduce wolves into an area that they probably could have come back to on their own, if left to their own devices? Why didn’t we reintroduce the wolves into their old home territory? Seems like if we are going to reintroduce a species of animals back to their former ranges, we should start by putting them back where they first became extinct from. Like New York. Well, at least Central Park. I am sure in colonials times there would have been wolves there. So why not put some back? Surely the good people of New York City wouldn’t mind. After all they are a peaceful and peace loving bunch who just love the outdoors and wildlife, or else they would have torn up Central Park and put buildings there, wouldn’t they? I hear the cost of a big enough chunk of land to put up a building in that neighborhood is tremendous! So I am sure they wouldn’t mind. Plus they could put some deer there for the wolves to eat, tho’ the way whitetails seem to be taking over the country, I bet they already have some there. And perhaps some Elk. Get the Rocky Mountain Elk society involved. We have rancheres raising Elk and I bet they’d be happy to make the government a deal on some. Shoot, we could get ol’ Ted “Sure Glad I got Rid Of Commie Loving Jane” Turner to donate some buffalo while we are at it. I hear he has lots of money and buffalo. And power.
But back to the point I was trying to make when I started this lengthy tirade. Why do the people who don’t live in an area, get to have so much say about what goes on in an area? Do we in South Dakota have more power than those people in say…oh I don’t know…maybe Washington DC? Do we have more power than the people who live there? ‘Cuz if we do, I have some changes I’d like to see happen in that fair city! And who is allowed to live and work there. Or maybe just a few of the jobs in….. oh, I don’t know……. maybe the White House? Or Congress?
Seems to me like if something is going to effect the local people the most, they should get the most say in it.
So those who want wolves in their back yard, should be allowed to do so. If they and all their neighbors are in agreement. Or at least a majority of them. Isn’t that how this country was supposed to work? Democracy? Republic?
By the way, if we see any large, furry, dog looking creatures around here, we are allowed to shoot them, outside city limits I suppose. They are considered large coyotes. And we still have rules that allow us to protect ourselves and our property against those sorts of thing. To bad the lady jogger in Alaska didn’t have a gun and the wherewithal to use it. We as humans are, after all, at the top of the food chain, when we have the proper tools with us and the capacity to use them. If we don’t, we are about fifth or sixth down the list I hear, depending on where you are at, at the moment and who is knocking on your door, so to speak.
Perhaps we need to remember that we have tools to fix problems in other places like DC also, if we just use them……….
So get and practice using the finest tools you can. Who wants to end up as wolf scat, anyway?
Dennisranch 