Wolf Crossing

Wolves Devastate More Ranch Family’s

For Immediate Release

PAJE Foundation People’s Alliance for Jobs and the Environment.

www.peoplejobsenvironment.org

South Central New Mexico

The Mexican gray wolves are at it again and continue to be aided and abetted by Arizona and New Mexico state governments and the federal government.

It’s calving season on the ranches of Southwest New Mexico. It’s also denning time for wolves. Hungry pups need to be fed, and fresh-born calves are the food of choice for the adults, much to the chagrin of ranchers who rely on their cattle for their own and their families’ sustenance.

The San Mateo Pack of endangered Mexico gray wolves, have been implicated in several cattle kills. For the second time, AM-1114 has been linked to four confirmed livestock kills, but has been allowed to remain in the wild against the rules put in place by the reintroduction program.  The experimental nonessential population rule states the agency will “remove individuals from the wild population that depredate livestock …”

On page 10 of the Blue Range Recovery Area Standard Operating Procedure policy paper  numbered SOP 13.0 Control of Mexican Wolves, it states: “When a third livestock depredation incident occurs:  (1) Within 24 hours, the Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator or his designee shall, after consulting with the Adaptive Management Oversight Committee, issue a permanent removal order.”

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regional director Benjamin Tuggle, according to a memo to the coordinator of the program, said removal of the San Mateo male “could hurt any population gains,” because AM-1114 is raising four eight-week-old pups, with help from the pack’s alpha female,” so the wolf continues to roam free and eat what he wants.

“Every species, including ours, will do what it can to preserve its own species,” says Miguel Aragon, whose grandfather and brothers settled in the area along the Continental Divide south of New Mexico 10 near Quemado. His grandfather ranched the Piñon del Buey, which passed to Miguel’s father.  When he retired, Miguel bought it and added to it with the purchase of another ranch nearby.

“Our species, including my grandparents, had trouble getting rid of the wolves in order to survive, now we can’t get rid of them because they’re under government protection,”Aragon said.  “It’s amazing how much money the government is spending on this project. New Mexico Game & Fish Department people are around day and night. They stay near where the wolves have their den. They’ve already vaccinated the pups. The state takes better care of them than they do of children.”

Aragon said that, last year he was heavily impacted with livestock depredation, and, therefore, income losses.

“It’s easy for the government or the Defenders of Wildlife to say they will compensate us for our losses,” Aragon said. “But it’s hard to prove that it’s a wolf kill under their standards.  I would guess that for every one of mine that is proven, about 25 cattle are killed.”

“Last year, I had one proven kill, but I saw at least 15 cows with tight bags,” he said. “A lot of the time, I don’t see the tight bags, however, I knew a cow had a calf, but there was no calf,” This type of damage doesn’t occur when there aren’t wolves on Piñon del Buey Ranch.

He has followed several tight bagged cows this year and found only bits of bone remaining from the depredation.  The method to prove a kill is to measure the bite marks under the skin. Canine spreads vary from wolf to wolf, but are consistently 38mm and up in male wolves and 32mm and up in females. This year, even smaller marks with corresponding hemorrhage have been found, indicating that the pups are also participating in the kill or that the wolves are running and killing with coyote packs. Both are scenarios the program does not want to see or admit is occurring.

Neither ranchers nor wolf program personnel want the pups to become accustomed to live cattle.  Aragon said the government is feeding the denning wolves, but “I’m still seeing a lot of depredation.” He doesn’t have proof, but he suspects that the government is killing elk and bringing them in to feed the wolves, even though he has been told the elk and deer meat used is from road kill or death from natural causes.

This year when Aragon was branding, he counted 15 cows that he knew he had seen with calves, but they no longer had them.  He also saw bite marks on several calves that indicating an attack.  If cows are nearby when a wolf gets near a calf, they will often counterattack and attempt to chase the wolves away.  Sometimes they are successful sometimes they trade their lives for that of their calf.

Aragon runs his cattle on a forest permit, which he pays for and was an historic allotment in his grandfathers time.

“I pay to use the land and grass, I own the water and improvements” he said, “but the cattle are my private property, and the government is taking, my calves to feed the wolves without compensating me. I’m just an old rancher who is frustrated with the government taking my private property — my cattle.  Species come and go, but now the government is trying to bring back a species that became almost extinct. They’re trying to preserve what nature got rid of.”

Aragon told John Oakleaf, (Mexican wolf  Interagency Field Team leader), that although he is not advocating it, he could have taken care of the problem a couple of years ago, and now he wouldn’t have the problem anymore.  

Aragon said, “But I try to follow the law.” He says, “It’s against the law and the fundamental rights of a citizen to have private property taken without being paid for it.”

Aragon’s neighbor, Bill Powell, after negotiating with NMDGF agreed to have a range rider patrol his property to keep the wolves away.

“It just started this year,” says Powell. “I think they’re trying to keep the wolf from getting another kill.”

Aragon did not accept the offer of range riders. “I told them I didn’t want to play their game.” He was told that if he corralled his cows and calves during the night and let the cows out during the day, he could protect his cattle.

“It’s too spread out,” Aragon said. “I couldn’t gather them all into a corral.”

Experts in livestock feeding agree penning and feeding cattle costs the animals their health and their productivity.

It’s not only livestock that have been harassed by wolves.

“During round up, my daughter and a friend were at a waterhole,” he recounted. “We caught up to them and my helper said, ‘Look over there.’ I’ve seen the female so many times, I recognized her. She was very close to us. They’re very tame.”  When he is riding a four-wheeler, Aragon says the wolves run away, but when he is on horseback, they approach him.

Aragon asked about the daily log that is supposed to be kept on the locations of wolves being observed.  “I asked about a specific date, when observers were nearby,” he said. “Nothing was noted on the log, but I saw one of the wolves.”

Bill Powell reported that a kill confirmed as wolf-caused was attributed to a female wolf 30 miles away, so the San Mateo Pack male would not receive another depredation on is record.

Last year, Powell had one confirmed kill, one probable wolf kill, and three confirmed attacks that caused injuries.  “Normally, I may lose four or five calves a year,” Powell said. “Last year, I lost 18, of which I would say maybe six were not wolf kills. Most of the calves just disappeared when wolves were in the vicinity.”  The San Mateo pack is often in the vicinity of both Powell and Aragon’s lost and missing calves.

He said that the Interagency Field Team attempted to trap AM1114 last fall, after his first four kills in 12 months were confirmed, but after a month and-a-half months, they stopped because “John Oakleaf said it was too expensive.”

“I don’t understand,” Powell said. “It’s costing them a lot, but they sure don’t care about how much I’m losing.”

Ranchers continue to have mounting financial losses due to the wolf program, but the government, even in rough economic times continues to support it with taxpayer dollars.

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