Crandon – The Wisconsin DNR’s proposed wolf hunt plans to harvest more than 200 wolves this year.
It can’t come soon enough for a Crandon family whose hunting dogs were killed and eaten by wolves last week.
Tim Thiel regularly hunts bears with his Plott Hounds.
Last Friday, he had ten dogs. But that’s before Cassie and Gonzo were killed by a pack of wolves. Thiel was hunting in the woods and didn’t hear his dogs bark for about 30 minutes.
When he tracked them by their GPS collars, he couldn’t believe what he found.
“There wasn’t much,” Thiel said. “There was a head and feet left, that’s about all, and spine. It was all connected, but they were ate. They didn’t just kill the dogs, they ate the dogs.”
The Thiel family does have pictures of the dogs’ bodies, but they are too graphic to share.
The DNR says it’s common to see wolves kill and injure about 30 pets and livestock in the state each year.
“This time of year, typically when a dog is killed, it’s probably because of an encounter with a wolf pack that has a rendezvous site which is where pups are being tended by other members of the pack,” DNR Wildlife Biologist Jeremy Holtz said.
The DNR has set up a caution area in western Forest and eastern Oneida counties because of last week’s attack.
It roughly traces the boundaries of what is called the Atkins Lake Wolf Pack.
Hunters and dogs are strongly advised to stay out of the area.