By: Aldo Santin
Conservation officials might bring traps back to Birds Hill Provincial Park after a wolf was caught and killed Thursday night.
Officials said they don’t know for certain if the wolf that was trapped and killed Thursday night in the south end of the park is the same one that killed a small pet dog April 3.
The traps were placed after the dog was killed and removed on Thursday.
Officials said the traps were an unnecessary danger for what they expect to be a busy weekend at the park, especially when many dog owners refuse to comply with the park’s leash regulations. “We want to make sure to reduce the chance of trapping someone’s pet by mistake if they were in the park and not having it on the leash,” Jim Duncan, acting director of the wildlife branch of Manitoba Conservation and Stewardship, said.
“The next steps will be to monitor and determine if we need to re-establish the traps.”
That provided little consolation to the Carlson family, whose tiny pet dog Spencer — an 11-pound, two-year-old chihuahua, miniature-pinscher cross — was killed by a large wolf in the woods behind the family home just south of the park. Their pet was the third dog attacked by a wolf in or near the park during a two-week period leading up to the Easter weekend earlier this month. Duncan said two dogs were mauled south of the park before the Carlsons’ dog was attacked and killed.
Conservation officials said earlier they knew there had been two problem wolves in the park area since January but chose not to warn the public other than posting signs in the park.
“I wish they had warned the public, because then we probably could have saved our dog had we known about it,” Janelle Carlson said.
The Carlsons live on the south side of Hillside Drive, just west of Highway 206 and less than half a kilometre from the equestrian course at the southeast corner of the park where the wolf was trapped Thursday night.
Duncan said the unusually mild winter and lack of snow cover made it difficult for wolves to find their natural prey, adding it’s not unusual in those circumstances some wolves would be attracted to small pets as an alternative food source. Duncan said the wolf trapped Thursday night was likely the same one that killed the Carlsons’ dog, but they will monitor the situation.
“We’re hoping we removed the animal that had become conditioned to recognize small dogs as easy prey,” Duncan said.
Carlson said she trusts Conservation officials know what they are doing.
“This has been a wake-up call,” Carlson said. “We have a dead dog and a dead wolf and that’s not a satisfactory outcome for me.”
Carlson said she’s convinced the trapped wolf was the one that killed her pet, adding she understands why a hungry and desperate wolf targeted her dog.
“A wolf attacking a dog is not normal,” Carlson said. “It’s likely just one wolf that had become desperate and he found a source of easy prey. We’ll definitely take more precautions.”