1) I believe there are (some) wolves in Colorado, and it is political spin (hello, DOW) to state there are not.

2) I believe wolves do target and attack livestock, and it is ignorant to claim they do not.

3) I believe wolves can be dangerous to humans, and it is naive to think they can not.

It’s too bad that it will always be the case that some people will make sensible thinking about certain ‘emotional’ issues an impossibility. ‘Animal rights’ is one such example. Progress cannot be made because people have made a religion out of saving animals (at any cost), rather than seeking a balanced approach. I think it validates a need they have for a sense of nobility. No responsible person would advocate wholesale slaughter of the wolves. Protection, however, is another matter entirely.

I remember that Timothy Treadwell guy pleading the plight of the mistreated grizzly bears — until one ate him & his girlfriend. Let’s reason together, folks.

TJ, you should realize that many local newspapers in the 19th centrury were in the habit of printing sensationalistic fictional stories for entertainment value. For example, there were many stories of bigfoot encounters from that era that nobody takes seriously because of the known sensationalism and dishonesty of papers from that time period.

The fact is that there has been only one probable wolf-caused death in North America (and even that case isn’t completely conclusive). Now, contrast that with the 19 documented cases of people who were killed by mountain lions in North America since 1890. Or the more than 52 documented human fatalities caused by black bear attacks. Does it make sense to hate the wolf and call for its extermination, while at the same time accepting large populations of these other predators in our forests?

Also consider that nearly 5 million people are attacked by domesticated dogs in the U.S. each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 26 people are killed each year by domesticated dogs and over 800,000 require serious medical attention.

I have to laugh at the people who are afraid of wolves. How many of these people who claim that they are afraid of wolves even give a second thought to walking through their neighborhood? You are literally many millions of times more likely to be attacked by a dog in your own neighborhood than by a wolf in the wilderness. It is so laughably irrational. I can’t believe that anybody would use that as an excuse for why wolves must be exterminated or aggressively controled.

I am also sick of some wolf-haters acting as if all rural people share their biased and irrational view of the wolf. I was born and raised in the White Mountains of Arizona very near the Mexican wolf recovery area. I hike and fish in the wolf inhabited country all the time. I am a rural person. I have talked to more people in this area who support the return of the wolf than those who oppose it. The vociferous anti-wolf crowd always try to paint the picture of them being the majority but it just isn’t true. Several independent polls have shown that a majority of people in the wolf recovery area are in favor of returning the wolf to our ecosystem.

Whereas 80% of city residents might favor the restoration of the wolf, 50 or 60% percent of rural people might be in favor. So, it’s true that there are more people in rural areas that are opposed to the wolf but it isn’t because they know more about what they are talking about, as many of them like to believe. Quite the contrary, it has more to do with a certain ingrained cultural ignorance. You see, many of these people are intoxicated by the romance of the cowboy and visions of an untammed western frontier.

Early ranchers, with the help of the federal government, killed off many predator species, and these modern day “cowboys” refuse to believe that the tradition which they cherish so much could possibly have made a mistake when they killed off species such as the wolf. Thus, they continue in their traditional hatred of the wolf, despite all the mountains of evidence that show the vital role that wolves play in a healthy ecosystem.

http://www.aws.vcn.com/wolf_attacks_on_humans.html

http://blog.kingsoutdoorworld.com/2006/09/13/six-people-injured-by-wolf-attack/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID1CNsdw4NA

http://www.wildsentry.org/WolfAttack.html

Wolves must be managed, just like any other predator or game animal. In fact, more so. The only predator the wolf has, is human. This can be achieved only two ways. By allowing seasonal hunting and for ranchers to proactively defend thier livestock.

In a pack, wolves fear nothing.

The think otherwise is to be naive.

Besides, this is a young country with much less history of co-habitation with the wolf.
Europe

In Scotland, during the reign of James VI, wolves were considered such a threat to travellers that special houses called “spittals” were erected on the highways for protection.[1] The people of the Scottish Highlands used to bury their dead on offshore islands to avoid having the bodies eaten by wolves.[2] In Imperial Russia 1890, a document was produced stating that 161 people had been killed by wolves in 1871.[1] During the First World War, starving wolves had amassed in great numbers in Kovno and began attacking Imperial Russian and Imperial German fighting forces, causing the two fighting armies to form a temporary truce to fight off the animals.[3]

A hypothesis as to why wolves in Eurasia act more aggressively toward humans than those in North America is that in the past, Old World wolf hunting was mostly an activity for the nobility, whereas American wolf hunts were partaken by ordinary citizens, nearly all of them possessing firearms. This difference could have caused American wolves to be more fearful of humans, making them less willing to venture into settled areas.[4]

Nevertheless, with the exception of one attack on a French shepherd in 2001,[5] modern Western Europe has had very few attacks and no recent fatalities. “Lupus,” a German group of wildlife biologists says it has documented 250 encounters between people and wolves in the Lusatia region and there were no problems in any of the cases.[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_wolf_attacks

North America

Though most Native American tribes revered wolves, their oral history does confirm that they were in fact on occasion attacked by wolves long before the arrival of European settlers. Woodland Indians were usually the most at risk, as they would often encounter wolves suddenly and at close quarters. An old Nunamiut hunter once said in an interview with author Barry Lopez that wolves used to attack his people, until the introduction of firearms, at which point the attacks ceased.[7]
Reminds me of the old adage, “walk softly and carry a big stick”. A boomstick that is.

Causes

Habitat loss can cause the wolf’s natural prey to diminish and thus cause the local wolves to turn to attacking livestock or on some rare occasions, even people. Close proximity to humans may also cause habituation. In this case, wolves lose their fear of humans and consequently approach too close. Habituation usually happens when people encourage wolves to come up to them, usually by offering them food, or when people do not sufficiently intimidate wolves. Habituation can also occur accidentally. With unrestricted hunting, forest clearing and intensive livestock grazing there is little natural prey, therefore forcing the wolves to feed on domestic animals and garbage, thus bringing them in close proximity to humans. However, wild wolves are often timid around humans, and usually try to avoid contact with them, to the point of even abandoning their kills when an approaching human is detected.[15]

From what I have read, human populations are only going to increase exponentially in the future. There will most definately be more habituation.
Either control the number of wolves or the number of humans. It is that simple.

Also, last summer while hiking the Western U.S. forests, I actually saw a posted recommendation, that if you were going to camp, to do so only in hard-shell, not a tent. Such as a camper or trailer etc….. I, for one, grew up with no wolves in the back country. Yes, they are beautiful, but so are Cougars, Wolverines and Bears.

Fortunately and finally, the wolf is now de-listed in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. The power to regulate now falls within each States jurisdiction.

I for one, will continue to carry my 357Mag and my 45-70 to alleviate any and all such threats when I travel the back country of our lands.

And bill S.2616 best pass or I will never get to see Yellowstone.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/thomas