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Daryl's take on it makes sense to me. I guess the answer is just to shoot wolves wherever until their numbers are under control and to compensate ranchers who lose stock to them. Neutering male animals that can jump fences doesn't make any sense to me. The neutered ones will still eat stuff - some ring-in will do the diddlin'.

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Paul, you are close!

But...

It is not so easy to "shoot wolves". VERY difficult, and VERY expensive in time and effort. It is impossible to reduce wolf numbers in our country by "shooting them".

As for "compensate", that, too is exponentially more difficult than you seem to understand, because PROOF of the take must be made {remember, we are dealing with the US legal system...}. That proof is denied continuously because ranchers find stock long after the kill or the stock never comes back with the herd. True compensation must include compensation for defense measures {additional movements of stock to safe areas, at night, increased innoculations, etc} AND must include compensation for radical change of lifestyle being imposed on us; children being shut up in the house instead of being allowed to play, or not fishing, hiking, berry picking, etc because wolves are in the area. I will not let my daughters ride their horses in the mountains UNARMED because of wolf threat for example. Since they were young they must carry a gun. People throughout our region are altering their lifestyles due to wolf threat. When you find wolf track in the snow next to your child's swingset in the backyard, you do not find any of this funny.

The ONLY way to CONTROL wolves, is to unleash all methods and attempt to eradicate them. I say attempt because you will not be 100% successful, and you will always have "a little disease" to deal with, but as Daryl says, a strong program of control will buy time, BUT those control methods must not be forgotten and they must be implemented immediately and wherever wolf numbers begin to increase.

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