Timber wolves blamed for killing farm animals
The Associated Press
PARK FALLS ý Timber wolves killed 20 cattle and 24 sheep on more than a dozen farms across northern Wisconsin last year, the state Department of Natural Resources reported Wednesday.
Wolves also killed one deer on a deer farm and six hunting dogs, the agency said.
To deal with the predation of domestic animals, federal wildlife specialists trapped and euthanized 17 wolves from near five farms to attempt to prevent further problems, the DNR said.
The killing of wolves is permitted because the animal has been downgraded from an endangered species to a threatened species.
ýThe state wolf population now occupies nearly all the area considered suitable wolf habitat. As the population has grown, there has been a corresponding increase in the number of domestic animals killed by wolves,ý said Signe Holtz, director of the DNRýs Bureau of Endangered Resources.
The timber wolf was wiped out in Wisconsin by the late 1950s after decades of bounty hunting. Since the animal was granted protection as an endangered species in the 1970s, wolves migrated into the state from Minnesota and their numbers have grown ever since.