Cheyenne's Howl

Printed in Mountain Messenger On Friday - April 10, 1998

Letter to Farm Bureau and Mexican Wolf Reintroduction

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If an error is made, it needs to be corrected. If the truth is told and it causes discomfort, then the cause of the truth needs to be remedied. In future articles I will be seeking the truth from the Farm Bureau. Do they truly represent what they are claiming or is there some hidden agenda. This week I wrote to them asking for information as to why they are so adamantly against us wolves. Even though according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, wolves have taken less than one-tenth of one per cent of livestock in areas where wolves and livestock coexist, and ranchers in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho have been compensated for any loss proven to be done by a wolf, the Farm Bureau is still spending a small fortune just to fight us wolves. Expenditures since 1987 in the Northern Rockies by the Defenders of Wildlife's Wolf Compensation Fund, has only amounted to $58,934. This went to 56 ranchers for the fair market value of 268 livestock. When the reply comes back from the Farm Bureau, I will share with you their side of the story.

This week I want to share with you some good news about my Mexican cousins, but first, this weekend I met a very special lady from Vancouver, Canada. Her name is Wendy McLean and boy can she carry a tune. She can howl better than any other human I have heard yet. Most humans sound like sick coyotes to me, but I could howl with this lady any time. I wonder if she was a wolf in a previous life?

Over the weekend of March 14 and 15, eleven of my endangered Mexican wolf cousins, also known as El Lobo, were released into freedom in the wilds along the Arizona-New Mexico border. These were made up of three different family groups. A suit was filed on Friday, March 13, to prevent my cousins release by the New Mexico Cattlegrowers, New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau (an affiliate of the Farm Bureau), and several others. Since the release had already taken place, prior to the suit being served on Monday, the suit might be considered moot. The release had been planned for Tuesday the 17th but had been moved up because of an impending snowstorm.

  In the suit, the claim of the plaintiffs is that the genetics of the Mexican wolf are questionable. This stems from a paper written in 1995 by Dennis Parker, a consultant, who has already been debunked by 15 scientists. While the Mexican wolf is genetically unique, according to Peter Siminski, head of captive breeding at the Tucson Zoo, there is no indication of questionable genetics. The suit also contends that the Fish and Wildlife Service did not adequately consider economics. The FWS has predicted that under a worst case scenario, livestock losses would amount to only one fifth of one percent of all livestock.

With the capture of the last five known Mexican wolves in Mexico nearly two decades ago, the captive breeding program has now allowed El Lobo to return to its historic home. In just a few weeks we can expect the females released into the Blue Range Recovery Area to start building dens and to give birth to the first wild-born Mexican wolves in several decades.

Cheyenne