Dog survives front-yard wolf attack
Owners’ shouts save ‘Butch’ from fatal mauling; calf killed in separate attack south of Catawba
Ryan Stutzman
THE-BEE
For the second time this spring, a timber wolf has mauled a dog in a Phillips-area farm yard. This time, however, the story has a happy ending.
Butch, a 14-year-old mixed-breed dog, normally runs loose during the day on owner Ed Jasurda’s property in the town of Worcester. But after his near-death experience in the jaws of a wild canine cousin, Butch is a bit more cautious.
Just after 6:30 a.m. one morning last month, Jasurda’s mother Donna, who lives on an adjoining parcel, noticed a lone timber wolf prowling the area near Ed’s residence. She called her son’s house right away.
Ed’s wife Lori looked out the window after taking the call, and as Ed recollects, she screamed, “Oh my God, a wolf’s attacking Butch!”
Lori ran outside, grabbed a metal pipe and hollered at the wolf, which was dragging Butch by the neck toward a wooded area. Ed soon followed, armed with shouts and more machine parts. The wolf spooked and ran off without Butch, but the poor old pooch was already bleeding profusely.
“I thought he was a goner,” Ed recalled last week as he scratched Butch’s ears near the scene of the attack.
By a brilliant stroke of luck and the quick work of a Blue Skies Animal Clinic crew, Butch survived deep lacerations all around his head, neck and shoulder area. He hobbles around the yard timidly now. He favors one leg and prefers the security of the living room. But at least he’s still hobbling.
A chocolate lab was killed by a pack of wolves on the Quinnell farm on Highway J north of Kennan in late March. That attack was similar to the Jasurda attack in that it occurred near an occupied house.
Some people see the two attacks as evidence of a disturbing trend.
“This was right on our lawn in broad daylight,” Ed Jasurda said. “There aren’t any woods for a half-mile. It isn’t like we live by the (national forest).”
Jasurda said he didn’t have any passionate opinion about the presence of wolves in the area before. He said reports of bear-hunting dogs mauled in deep forest lands stand to reason.
But now that wolves seem to be more bold about entering human domains, he said he’s ambivalent at best.
“This just isn’t right,” he said.
Federal and state wildlife management authorities have been in contact with Jasurda and have set traps in the area. The traps were empty at press time. Trapped wolves are typically killed, although a recent court injunction suspended that practice.
Jasurda said rumors about other wolf depredations on his property are false.
Meanwhile, a DNR source confirmed wolves killed and consumed a calf on a farm southwest of Catawba last month. The farmer asked not to be identified. The suspect wolf or wolf pack is thought to be separate from the animal in the Jasurda attack.
The recent attacks won’t do anything to quell anti-wolf sentiment in the area. In some corners, “Shoot, shovel and shut up” is a common creed for wolf control – even though such action is illegal. “Save wildlife; Kill a wolf,” is another slogan that howls from stickers on a number of local bumpers.
Others argue that wolves were here long before people and have an important place in the Northwoods ecosystem.
Some folks, like DNR wolf biologist Adrian Wydeven, are trying to help strike a balance where humans and wolves intersect.
Wydeven doesn’t minimize the seriousness of wolf depredation on settled lands. But he does hasten to add some scale to the debate.
“Wolves are no more dangerous than animals we have there in the first place,” he said, noting that black bears, coyotes and other large critters are responsible for just as many domestic animal kills.
He said he isn’t aware of any documented wolf attack on a human in Wisconsin. However, he added that wolves can be particularly aggressive toward other canines they find near their territory.
Any wolf-killed domestic animal should be reported to the DNR. The carcass should be cleared as soon as possible to discourage wolves from returning.
The government reimburses farmers for wolf depredation. A farmer who loses a calf to wolves is reimbursed according to estimated end-of-summer weight – typically $500 to $700.
Wydeven said all things considered, wolf depredation can be controlled to a point where the benefits of wolf populations outweigh the damage they can do.
“I think it’s a manageable problem,” he said.
Among other things, wolves spur a more natural forest succession by culling deer herds. Deer browse saplings of species that used to be far more common in northern Wisconsin, like white pine and cedar. But don’t tell that to Butch, the limping miracle at the end of Murphy Lake Road.
Ed Jasurda is thankful that fortune favored his old buddy.
“He’s one lucky dog,” Jasurda said.