Wolves Kill 176 Sheep near Victor, Greatest Loss Recorded in Idaho

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IDAHO FALLS, Ida­ho — A south­east­ern Ida­ho ranch lost 176 sheep as the ani­mals ran in fear from two wolves that chased through a herd of about 2,400 ani­mals south of Victor.

sheep pileup

Sheep­herders for the Sid­doway Sheep Co. heard the wolves at about 1 a.m. Sat­ur­day, but did­n’t know the extent of the dam­age until they saw the sheep piled up on each oth­er at daybreak.

J.C. Sid­doway of Ter­re­ton says almost all of the sheep died from asphyx­i­a­tion. About 10 died of bite wounds and one was par­tial­ly consumed.

Ida­ho Wildlife Ser­vices State Direc­tor Todd Grimm says it’s the great­est loss by wolves ever record­ed in one instance in the state. About nine years ago, wolves killed 105 sheep on one night.

Grimm says a dozen wolves have been removed from the Pine Creek area this year.

Source:  http://ktvb.com/news/Wolves-kill-176-sheep-near-Victor-greatest-loss-recorded-in-Idaho-220371911.html

SIDDOWAY SHEEP COMPANY, INC. PRESS RELEASE: Wolves Mas­sacre 176 Sheep in One Night

How big are these Ida­ho wolves?

Idaho Wolf 1      Wolf6      Size of wolf

Below is a first-hand account from Deb­bie B. who hiked to the site:

Dear all –

Yes­ter­day I hiked into the wolf kill in Vic­tor, Ida­ho. I could­n’t believe the size of the wolf tracks on the dusty and rugged trail as I got clos­er. One can only reach this area via foot or horse. Roundtrip it was a 10+ mile hike in beau­ti­ful but steep and rough coun­try. Upon final­ly find­ing the mas­sacre, it was a ter­ri­ble sight, smell, and expe­ri­ence. I cried as I imag­ined what ter­ror, exhaus­tion, and pain these poor ani­mals and guard dogs went through. Bear scat was also amongst the sheep. Mil­lions of mag­gots oozed out of the decom­pos­ing ani­mals as flies and yel­low jack­ets swarmed and buzzed with a con­stant reminder that death is here. It was awful. Today, I was priv­i­leged to meet and hear the wolf sto­ries from Cindy … the herd owner.

This year alone, they lost a horse (due to a wolf scar­ing it off a cliff (luck­i­ly the sheep herder jumped off in time)), sev­er­al guard dogs, and hun­dreds of sheep. This her­itage, ranch­ing fam­i­ly are salt of the earth people…you’d relate to them.

Both Cindy and her hus­band (a state Sen­a­tor from Ida­ho) said the killings are get­ting worse. They have sheep herders, guard dogs, and herd­ing dogs with the sheep 24/7…but that isn’t enough to pro­tect them from the vicious kill and pack game that make wolves killing machines. There are thou­sands of wolves we are not being told about.

By the way, Cindy also had oth­er sheep killed this weekend…wolves attacked oth­er herds in var­i­ous camps. This fam­i­ly has 30,000 acres about Ida­ho but also use BLM land for sum­mer graz­ing for 1000s of sheep. They are 5th gen­er­a­tion ranch­ers (their grand­chil­dren will be the 6th) … this year, they will be lucky to prof­it at all. The emo­tion­al cost is price­less. Cindy said more and more ranch­ers are get­ting out of the busi­ness. As you can imag­ine, the loss is to the local com­mu­ni­ty as well. Fur­ther­more, what hik­ers and moun­tain bik­ers are going to feel safe using pub­lic land they pay for when they hear a pack of wolves is run­ning around with­in miles? Sup­pos­ed­ly, the local fish and game euth­a­nized 13 wolves (most­ly pups) as a result of this attack. The sheep herds have sev­er­al more weeks to go before they are brought in for the win­ter. The Sid­doway fam­i­ly is expect­ing more devastation.

We must STOP the agen­da to INTRODUCE and rein­tro­duce WOLVES!!

The con­cept of Cores, Cor­ri­dors, and Car­ni­vores is NO JOKE!!!

God help us!

Deb­bie

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Oppor­tu­ni­ty to watch “Cry­ing Wolf” for free!  Film­mak­er J.D. King is offer­ing, for an unspec­i­fied win­dow of time, his doc­u­men­tary “Cry­ing Wolf” for free online. Go to cryingwolfmovie.com to view.