Wolf traps pulled after dog caught
Associated Press
STANLEY, Idaho _ The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has pulled its
leg-hold traps from a popular recreation area outside the Frank
Church-River of No Return Wilderness after a family dog got caught in one
and was shot by her owner.
“A biologist was coming up the trail to pick up the traps,” said Carter
Niemeyer, the Fish and Wildlife Service wolf recovery coordinator for
Idaho. “We were a little late.”
The service and the Nez Perce Tribe, which oversees wolf recovery in
Idaho, were using the leg-holds to trap wolves from the Landmark pack so
they could be fitted with radio collars.
While wolves are typically tranquilized with darts fired from helicopters
and then collared by ground teams, helicopters cannot be used in the
wilderness where the Landmark pack lives. The trapping operation was in an
accessible area just outside the wilderness boundary where the pack
sometimes congregates.
Niemeyer said the dog could have been released from the trap had the
owners known more about the equipment. But he conceded poor judgment in
putting traps in the area in the first place because of its popularity
with campers and hikers.
The service is now looking more closely at where it conducts trapping
operations, he said.
Precautions were taken in the area 25 miles northwest of Stanley, Niemeyer
said. Warnings signs were posted, the Forest Service contacted and campers
and hikers were warned by biologists, who checked the traps daily.
But, he admitted, “I had a horrible gut feeling about the crowds. … In
my whole career, I have never seen so many people doing so many things.”
A government trapper for nearly three decades, Niemeyer said the campers
and hikers would have been amazed to learn that all those wolves were
living in the area.
The radio-collaring operation is part of the government’s effort to
determine the extent of the reintroduction program’s success. Managers
believe that there may be enough breeding pairs in Montana, Wyoming and
Idaho to begin the process of removing wolves from federal protection.