Hunters look to keep wolf numbers in check
By JOHN PEPIN
Journal Staff Writer
MASS CITY – With six of his family’s prized bear
hunting hounds killed by wolves, Donald Monroe said he’s
frustrated with state officials.
“There’s got to be something done,” Monroe said.
When gray wolves were reclassified from an endangered to threatened
species in Michigan last spring, state officials were given the power to kill
wolves that have preyed on livestock. Farmers are then compensated for
their losses by the Michigan Department of Agriculture.
But no such protections exist for hunting dogs, because they were not
considered livestock by lawmakers who drafted the compensation laws.
Monroe, his brother-in-law and his brother have lost the six hunting dogs
in Ontonagon County. Monroe said the dogs were valued at about $5,000 each.
The first loss occurred in July when Monroe was hunting bear with dogs outfitted with radio telemetry
equipment.
“We turned him loose on a bear track,” Monroe said.
The needle of the signal reader jerked and dropped. Monroe and his hunting party searched for the dog and
found its devoured body a short time later.
“Just its head and tail and feet was left,” Monroe said.
There were wolf tracks all around, but the animals had already left the area. Despite the loss, Monroe
continued to run bear dogs in the area.
“The second one was killed about a week later,” Monroe said. “All we found of that
one was a training collar.”
The third dog was cold tracking for bear
and Monroe party hunters heard the
dog barking. They arrived in the area
where the dog was within about 15
minutes. But it was too late.
“That time, they ate all but the
front shoulders and the head,”
Monroe said.
Another dog was killed in early
September, followed by the final two
losses, which happened a couple of
weeks later after the dogs had treed a
bear.
“Before we got them, the wolves
killed them,” Monroe said.
He now has eight dogs left and said he
thinks the state Legislature should consider a ballot proposal to pay compensation to hunting dog owners for
losses, as is done in Wisconsin.
Or, he says, hunters should have more power to level the wolf population. Such an order would have to be
made by the Natural Resources Commission, the appointed rulemaking body for the DNR.
“I can’t see no use to them (wolves),” Monroe said. “They ain’t gonna
do nothing but wreck the hunting of one of the best deer hunting states that there ever was.”
Tom Weise, Michigan Department of Natural Resources wildlife supervisor for the Eastern Upper
Peninsula, said that wolves likely see dogs in the woods as a canine challenge and that some bear hunting
dogs will chase wolves.
“It’s entirely different than a wolf coming to your farm and killing your cows,” Weise
said.
In livestock depredation situations, DNR officials usually trap around a farm for a couple of weeks to catch
problem wolves. Or, those determined to be killing livestock can be shot.
In Mackinac County, the DNR shot four wolves recently and a fifth was killed by a truck. The shootings
were the first and last the DNR has taken under its new powers.
“There were nine calves killed between May 31 and Sept. 16,” Weise said. “They
were from four different farms and they were killed by the same pack of wolves.”
The alpha male in the pack was a radio-collared animal that the DNR had been monitoring.
“Once we got him, it seemed like everything stopped,” Weise said. “We probably got
the ones that were causing the problems.”
Later, the DNR submitted paperwork with the Department of Agriculture to have the farmers compensated.
Weise said he thought the situation worked out relatively well.
But that didn’t stop the outcry from local hunters who are concerned that depredation cases now will
only continue to rise with the unchecked population of wolves.
Currently, the state says there are roughly 320 wolves in the Upper Peninsula. But hunters think there are far
more.
“What we want is something reasonable,” said Jim Miller, president of the Tahquamenon
Area Sportsman’s Club in Newberry. “We’re not opposed to wolves. We just
don’t want them protected forever.”
Miller said his group, which has about 200 members, wants a middle ground found between those who
want all wolves killed and those who want unlimited protections for the animals.
Miller thinks the DNR should create a wolf hunting season, using a permit system like that currently in place
for bear hunting.
“If you hunt them like any other predator, they will become wary of man,” Miller said.
That fact could decrease the number of farm livestock kills, some hunters say.
The Tahquamenon Area Sportsman’s Club is currently working with Michigan United Conservation
Clubs to try to create, through the DNR and the NRC, some wolf checks and balances. MUCC is the
largest conservation organization in the country, with more than 500 affiliated clubs in its association.
The DNR places a moratorium on coyote hunting during deer hunting seasons to avoid confusion killings of
the animals. Wolves remain a protected species in Michigan, despite the recent federal reclassification.
Meanwhile, Weise said he knows of no efforts in place to try to find compensation for those who lose
hunting dogs to wolves.
Monroe, who insists wolves have decreased populations of deer, beaver and bear cubs, repeated his
original premise.
“Something’s got to be done,” he said.