Feeding Frenzy – “Hunters” Block Off Elk With Vehicles – Shoot Into Herd On State Land!!

Elk Massacre Montana

“A cow elk that a representative of the G-T Ranch said was shot in the face and wounded by hunters attempting to kill a bull in the herd on Friday, Nov. 7….Provided by G-T Ranch”

It really doesn’t get much uglier than this. “Hunters” block off a herd of elk with their vehicles and start shooting, creating a type of canned hunt. Hunting showed off its ugly underbelly in that field, it was a feeding frenzy. And yet wolves are demonized for hunting elk to live. These “hunters” couldn’t hold a candle to wolves when it comes to fair chase.  Oh yes, I forgot, hunting is such a noble “sport”. Tell that to the cow elk pictured above who “was shot in the face and wounded by hunters attempting to kill a bull in the herd”  And this was done on state land!!

Please send your comments to MFWP and let them know what you think of this disgusting display! Contact info below.

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Wardens: Elk hunters near Helena were unethical

Missoulian

HELENA (AP) — Some of the dozens of hunters who converged on a large herd of elk on state land unethically blocked off the animals with their vehicles and opened fire even as the herd was on the run, game wardens said.

The incident involved a herd of about 500 elk near Canyon Ferry Reservoir east of Helena on Oct. 26, the second day of the general elk-hunting season.

The number of hunters grew as word about the elk herd spread. Some hunters used their vehicles to keep the elk in flat, open areas. Hunters also continued to shoot into the herd after the elk began running.

The hunters killed about 30 elk. They included an illegally abandoned spike elk and a bull elk seized by wardens.

“Unfortunately a situation like that brings out the worst in unethical hunter behavior,” Warden Sgt. Dave Loewen said. “That type of activity drains local game wardens babysitting elk and unethical hunters. I wouldn’t even consider it hunting.”

Three hunters in the area at the time were cited for failing to obtain landowner permission before hunting.

“We issued a whole lot of verbal warnings,” Warden Justin Feddes said. “It’s a drain with three of us up there all day long tying us all down.”

Local landowner and outfitter Kelly Flynn said he has seen hunters gang up on elk on the flats before.

“People seem to lose some of their common sense when there’s that many elk that close,” he said. “It’s difficult to watch, and I’ve talked to several people who did see it and said it was as ugly as it could possibly be.”

http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/wardens-elk-hunters-near-helena-were-unethical/article_e11c12d6-30f1-5434-9cda-28dd2894b6bd.html

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Citations issued, ethical concerns raised over White Gulch elk hunt

Elk Massacre 2

Published in: on November 10, 2014 at 9:28 pm  Comments (44)  
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

About Elk….

This is a repost from 2009 but I could have written it yesterday. We’re still stuck in the same paradigm we were 4 years ago. The only thing that’s changed is the viciousness of the campaign to exterminate the wolf.

December 3, 2009

The wolf debate has become intrinsically tied to elk numbers and endless conversations and arguments revolve around this subject. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation trumpeted, in an April 09 press release, that wild elk populations were higher in twenty-three states  then they were twenty-five years ago, when the organization started.  YET, those facts don’t sit well with some people, who refuse to believe wolves aren’t decimating elk.  I can’t recall  how many times I’ve heard elk hunters say……Well elk may be thriving in one part of my state but their numbers are down in another area.  Or elk are harder to hunt….etc.  I agree elk are harder to hunt because they’re on high alert, acting more like, ELK.  They browse and move, browse and move. It makes hunting them more difficult but when you have a high-powered rifle and the advantage of surprise I’m not going to feel sorry if you don’t bag an elk.  It’s not the responsibility of wildlife viewers to be concerned about the success of elk hunters.

Wolf recovery and wolves presence in the Northern Rockies is not about elk hunters or hunting in general, although many people want it to be.  It’s about wolves fulfilling their role in our wild places. It’s about tolerance and allowing the wolf to be the wild animal, apex predator they are, to do their job in culling ungulates and making herds stronger, what they’ve been doing for millennia.

“The dance of life and death between predator and prey makes many of us uncomfortable, and yet, prey species are also benefiting from the return of the wolf. Unlike human hunters who target healthy adult animals, wolves cull the sick and elderly from elk, deer, moose and bison herds, reducing the spread of disease and keeping the prey population as a whole healthier.”

“It’s important to remember that predators and prey evolved in lockstep together over millions of years,”  Marin Humane Society

It’s also not about conducting polls to see if  hunters are happy with wolves, or whether hunters think there are enough elk. It may be important in their world but the majority of Americans don’t hunt.

US Fish & Wildlife 2006 figures report there were 12.5 million hunters nationally with expenditures of 22.9 billion dollars.

BUT

Wildlife Watchers numbered 71.1 million and generated 45.7 billion dollars. Does it make sense that wildlife watchers have so little input in how wildlife is managed, when wildlife viewers outnumber hunters by such a large margin and generate more revenue?

Wolves have been persecuted for well over a  hundred years in the West, they were exterminated once for ranching interests by the feds.  It wasn’t until the advent of the Endangered Species Act that wolves slowly began to recover. Now the ESA is being attacked, with threats to re-write it and exclude gray wolves. The war against wolves knows no bounds. This is a perfect example of why wolves must be protected against scapegoating and persecution.

It’s constantly repeated wolves were forced on Idaho and Montana by the reintroduction program in 1995 but wolves dispersed to Glacier National Park  long before they were brought back to Yellowstone and Central Idaho by the feds.

Almost any discussion about wolves is accompanied by a critique of elk or livestock. If by some miracle we could move past these two issues and realize the wolf is a top predator that has a role to play in nature.  If emotion was replaced with science that tells us the  disappearance of apex predators around the world is causing ecosystem collapse, the science that shows the benefit wolves bring to ecosystems they inhabit, we could make progress in ending this battle.

Don’t get me wrong, I like elk, they are beautiful creatures.  Of course I like my elk living and breathing but the material point is, it’s not about elk.  It’s about wolves and what’s in their interest. They’ve been so demonized but in reality wolves are animals, the direct ancestors of our beloved dogs.There is no reason to assign motives to their behavior.  They are doing what they were born to do.

Somehow the focus must be shifted from elk, hunting, ranching, livestock and outfitters to the benefit of having apex predators on the landscape.

The dialogue concerning elk declines or increases is irrelevant to most Americans. What’s important in nature is balance, not picking one species over another. By manipulating elk numbers state game agencies have elevated elk to a god like status, woe to any predator that dares to interfere with their mission. Their transparent dislike for wolves is palpable. Neither USFWS nor the states have shown the wolf any consideration, which is evident in the way they kill entire packs including puppies. As long as this outdated mindset continues to dominant “wildlife management”, where the only priority seems to be how many prey animals are available for hunters to kill, wolves will never be safe or any predator for that matter.  What will it take to deliver the message to tone-deaf “wildlife managers’? It’s not about elk.

Photos: Wikimedia Commons and kewlwallpapers.com

Posted in:  elk flourishing among wolves, biodiversity, Canis lupus

Tags: wolf recovery, dispersing wolves, wolf myths, elk

Published in: on February 26, 2013 at 2:11 am  Comments (22)  
Tags: , , ,

Karma…..Founder of SaveElk, the Anti-Wolf Website, Charged with Poaching

So wolves are killing all the elk huh? Hmmm, maybe Anthony Mayer, the founder of the anti-wolf website SaveElk, was talking about himself.

He’s charged with killing a trophy bull elk out of season, in other words, POACHING. If he’s guilty, don’t you find this person to be a complete hypocrite? He created a website to demonize wolves, yet he stands accused of taking down a beautiful bull elk, out of season and not in a nice way.

From the Idaho Mountain Express:

“The founder of a Twin Falls-based, anti-wolf Internet site has been charged with a felony for allegedly killing a trophy bull elk out of season last year in the Alturas Lake area of northern Blaine County.
Anthony J. Mayer, 59, is charged in a criminal complaint filed in Blaine County 5th District Court in September with “flagrant unlawful killing and possession of a trophy bull elk.” He is also charged with the misdemeanor crimes of hunting without an elk tag, hunting without an archery permit and unlawful possession of protected wildlife.”
According to the Mountain Express, Fish and Game Conservation Officer Merritt Horsmon states Mayer told him:

“he had first shot and wounded the elk using archery equipment on Sept. 30, 2009, and again shot and killed the elk using archery equipment on Oct. 1, 2009.”

That means it wasn’t a clean shot. The animal must have suffered terribly, after first being shot with a bow on Sept. 30 but was not killed until Oct 1. What kind of pain did he endure before dying?

Yet Mayer has the nerve to complain about wolves?  It’s not wolves we have to worry about, its human hunters that don’t know how to shoot. It’s human hunters that poach our wildlife and then brag about it. Apparently that’s what got him in trouble. He allegedly bragged on several hunting sites about killing the bull elk.

He’s facing some serious charges and I hope if he’s guilty they throw the book at him. How about losing his hunting license for life and even jail time? That’s the way to send a strong message.

But you know what gets me? Wolves are poached all the time and they’re a protected species. The little Oregon Wenaha pack wolf was found shot to death recently. Three highly endangered Mexican gray wolves were killed this summer and the alpha female of Washington’s Lookout Pack is missing. Or as one of my readers pointed out, thank you Rita, what happened to the little Mill Creek Pack female, 314f ? She made an epic journey of a thousand miles from Montana to Eagle County, Colorado. and there she died. Her bones were found on a lonely hillside called “No Name Ridge”. We’ve been waiting  for the results of her necropsy, yet it’s been 1 1/2 years and still no word that I know of?

When will a wolves’ life mean as much as a 6×6 trophy bull elk?

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Anti-wolf activist accused of poaching

SaveElk.com founder charged with felony in killing of trophy elk

http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005133545

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Posted in: Elk

Tags: poaching, anti-wolf website saveelk, Anthony Mayer, wolf hatred,  elk

Published in: on October 10, 2010 at 1:14 am  Comments (30)  

Help Wanted: Job Opening For Wolf Pack

Apparently they have an elk problem in Coos Bay, Oregon. 

Twenty or so Roosevelt Elk have set up home there and are doing quite a bit of damage to property. Sounds like they need to call in the wolves!!

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Gray Wolves: 

Job opening in Oregon near Coos Bay. The elk are overrunning the area and destroying property.  

All interested wolf packs may apply. 

Management skills a plus. Thank you.

*not an official ODFW ad…lol

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From Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Limit Elk Damage To Your Property 

The city of Coos Bay is currently dealing with a large population of elk making their home both in the Pony Creek municipal watershed and Mingus Park. These elk are also causing damage to private property and ODFW has some advice for homeowners.

Elk follow their food, so taking away their food source – your lawn, favorite flowers and shrubs – will help send them elsewhere. Here are a few ways to protect your landscaping.

Elk follow their food, so taking away their food source – your lawn, favorite flowers and shrubs – will help send them elsewhere. Here are a few ways to protect your landscaping.

he city of Coos Bay is currently dealing with a large population of elk making their home both in the Pony Creek municipal watershed and Mingus Park. These elk are also causing damage to private property and ODFW has some advice for homeowners.

Fencing

The best elk deterrent is a seven-foot fence around your property.

Wrap ornamental plants with plastic netting

This will keep elk from browsing on your plants.

Big Game Repellent

Since fencing can be expensive to install, big game repellents may also be useful in reducing damage to your property. Many repellents are environmentally friendly but water soluble so they need to be reapplied after significant rain. A variety of commercial products are available at garden shops, nurseries, florists and on the Internet. Examples include Deer Away, Plantskydd and Liquid Fence.

Motion-activated Sprinklers

Motion-activated sprinklers aggressively spray water in short bursts when an animal walks into the field of the sprinkler’s electronic eye, scaring the animal away. They are most effective when moved around the yard periodically so approaching animals are kept off-guard. Sprinklers such as the Scarecrow and Spray Away are available at garden shops and on Internet sites such as Amazon.com.

Deer and Elk-resistant Landscaping

Take advantage of the many deer and elk-resistant plants available at local nurseries. There are a wide variety of ornamental shrubs, flowers, plants and trees that deer and elk find unpalatable. Ask your local nursery or check ODFW’s Web site (see below) for a general guide to these plants.

http://www.coosbay.org/documents/ElkDamageFlyerFinal.pdf

 Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife 

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Elk herd makes itself at home in Coos Bay park

http://www.katu.com/news/weird/41064047.html

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This story is obviously a little dated but it makes a good point for wolves in Oregon.  Seems there’s plenty of elk.  I wonder if the Imnaha Pack applied for the job?

 

Photos: Wikimedia Commons 

Posted in: gray wolf/canis lupus, biodiversity, Elk

Tags: Oregon wolves, wolf recovery, humor

Thanks to gline for the idea!!

Published in: on February 24, 2010 at 6:31 pm  Comments (12)  
Tags: , ,

About Elk….

This is a repost from 2009, it could have been written yesterday. We’re still stuck in the same paradigm as we were three years ago. The only thing that’s changed is the viciousness of the campaign to exterminate the wolf.

December 3, 2009

The wolf debate has become intrinsically tied to elk numbers and endless conversations and arguments revolve around this subject. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation trumpeted, in an April 09 press release, that wild elk populations were higher in twenty-three states then they were twenty-five years ago, when the organization started.  YET, those facts don’t sit well with some people, who refuse to believe wolves aren’t decimating elk.  I can’t recall  how many times I’ve heard elk hunters say……Well elk may be thriving in one part of my state but their numbers are down in another area.  Or elk are harder to hunt….etc.  I agree elk are harder to hunt because they’re on high alert, acting more like, ELK.  They browse and move, browse and move. It makes hunting them more difficult but when you have a high-powered rifle and the advantage of surprise I’m not going to feel sorry if you don’t bag an elk.  It’s not the responsibility of wildlife viewers to be concerned about the success of elk hunters.

Wolf recovery and wolves presence in the Northern Rockies is not about elk hunters or hunting in general, although many people want it to be.  It’s about wolves fulfilling their role in our wild places. It’s about tolerance and allowing the wolf to be the wild animal, apex predator they are, to do their job in culling ungulates and making herds stronger, what they’ve been doing for millenia.

“The dance of life and death between predator and prey makes many of us uncomfortable, and yet, prey species are also benefiting from the return of the wolf. Unlike human hunters who target healthy adult animals, wolves cull the sick and elderly from elk, deer, moose and bison herds, reducing the spread of disease and keeping the prey population as a whole healthier.”

“It’s important to remember that predators and prey evolved in lockstep together over millions of years,”

It’s also not about conducting polls to see if  hunters are happy with wolves, or whether hunters think there are enough elk. It may be important in their world but the majority of Americans don’t hunt.

US Fish & Wildlife 2006 figures report there were 12.5 million hunters nationally with expenditures of 22.9 billion dollars.

BUT

Wildlife Watchers numbered 71.1 million and generated 45.7 billion dollars. Does it make sense that wildlife watchers have so little input in how wildlife is managed, when wildlife viewers outnumber hunters by such a large margin and generate more revenue?

Wolves have been persecuted for well over a  hundred years in the West, they were exterminated once for ranching interests by the feds.  It wasn’t until the advent of the Endangered Species Act that wolves slowly began to recover. Now the ESA is being attacked, with threats to re-write it and exclude gray wolves. The war against wolves knows no bounds. This is a perfect example of why wolves must be protected against scapegoating and persecution.

It’s constantly repeated wolves were forced on Idaho and Montana by the reintroduction program in 1995 but wolves dispersed to Glacier National Park  long before they were brought back to Yellowstone and Central Idaho by the feds.

Almost any discussion about wolves is accompanied by a critique of elk or livestock. If by some miracle we could move past these two issues and realize the wolf is a top predator that has a role to play in nature.  If emotion was replaced with science that tells us the  disappearance of apex predators around the world is causing ecosystem collapse, the science that shows the benefit wolves bring to ecosystems they inhabit, we could make progress in ending this battle.

Don’t get me wrong, I like elk, they are beautiful creatures.  Of course I like my elk living and breathing but the material point is, it’s not about elk.  It’s about wolves and what’s in their interest. They’ve been so demonized but in reality wolves are animals, the direct ancestors of our beloved dogs.There is no reason to assign motives to their behavior.  They are doing what they were born to do.

Somehow the focus must be shifted from elk, hunting, ranching, livestock and outfitters to the benefit of having apex predators on the landscape.

The dialogue concerning elk declines or increases is irrelevant to most Americans. What’s important in nature is balance, not picking one species over another. By manipulating elk numbers state game agencies have elevated elk to a god like status, woe to any predator that dares to interfere with their mission. Their transparent dislike for wolves is palpable. Neither USFWS nor the states have shown the wolf any consideration, which is evident in the way they kill entire packs including puppies. As long as this outdated mindset continues to dominant “wildlife management”, where the only priority seems to be how many prey animals are available for hunters to kill, wolves will never be safe or any predator for that matter.  What will it take to deliver the message to tone-deaf “wildlife managers’? It’s not about elk.

Photos: Wikimedia Commons and kewlwallpapers.com

Posted in:  elk flourishing among wolves, biodiversity, Canis lupus

Tags: wolf recovery, dispersing wolves, wolf myths, elk

Published in: on December 3, 2009 at 1:57 am  Comments (9)  
Tags: , , ,

Elk Numbers Skyrocketing

bull elk

October 6, 2009

According to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, elk are flourishing.  Just exactly how good is it?

“The elk population in the Northern Rockies has skyrocketed in the last twenty-five years, notwithstanding the reintroduction of wolves in the mid-1990s.  Wyoming’s elk population has grown 35%, Idaho’s has grown 5%, and Montana’s a whopping 66%.” 

Those are amazing numbers yet hunters continue to complain wolves are decimating  elk.  So why all the whining from hunters?  Is it kabuki theater to bolster wolf hating dogma? Is it due to elk changing their browsing behavior,  making them  harder to hunt because of dispersal by wolves?  It’s probably a mix of  both but  it’s a specious argument that wolves  must be  “managed”  because of ungulate declines.

Montana and Idaho hunters do your homework!!  There are 105, 000 and 166,00 elk in the two states combined, they may be harder to find but they’re out there.

bull elk 2

There is one hunter talking truth about elk.  He shot the first wolf killed in northern Montana, so I can’t say I’m fond of the guy but having a hunter admit the truth about elk is something to note.

“Do wolves affect elk?  Absolutely.  But in my opinion, the story of the wolves going into a basin and decimating the elk herd just isn’t true.”…..Dan Pettit

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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Honesty From A Wolf Hunter About Wolves And Elk

Matt Skoglund

Wildlife Advocate, Livingston, Montana

Posted September 23, 2009

wolf and elk

In an article about the first wolf killed by a hunter in northern Montana, the hunter that killed the wolf, Dan Pettit, offers some surprisingly candid commentary on wolves and elk in the Northern Rockies.

One of the most common — and most erroneous — gripes from the anti-wolf community is that wolves have annihilated the elk population in the Northern Rockies.

When asked about wolves and elk, Pettit gave an honest answer:

“Do wolves affect elk?  Absolutely.  But in my opinion, the story of the wolves going into a basin and decimating the elk herd just isn’t true.”

Pettit is right, the “wolves have decimated all the elk” argument isn’t true, and it’s encouraging to hear a wolf hunter admit that.

What are the facts?  According to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which is certainly not a wolf-loving organization, the elk population in the Northern Rockies has skyrocketed in the last twenty-five years, notwithstanding the reintroduction of wolves in the mid-1990s.  Wyoming’s elk population has grown 35%, Idaho’s has grown 5%, and Montana’s a whopping 66%.

So, how have wolves affected elk?  Simple:  the presence of wolves on the landscape has made elk act more like . . . well, ummm . . . elk.

When wolves, a native predator to the Northern Rockies, were eradicated from this region in the 1930s, elk lost their primary predator and stopped behaving like wild elk.  They became less cautious and over browsed streamside vegetation, which negatively affected beavers, songbirds, and coldwater fish species like trout.

The reintroduction of wolves has been an ecological boon to the Northern Rockies.  So much so, in fact, that scientists hope to restore wolves to other ecosystems for purely ecological reasons — chief among them the ecological devastation caused by overbrowsing elk.  An article about the need to restore wolves to Olympic National Park in Washington noted:

Most famously, [two ecologists] showed that within three years after wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and elk populations fell, pockets of trees and shrubs began rebounding.  Beavers returned, coyote numbers dropped and habitat flourished for fish and birds.

It was an “explosive” discovery, said David Graber, regional chief scientist for the National Park Service.  “The whole ecosystem re-sorted itself after those wolf populations got large enough.”

The elk population in the Northern Rockies is strong — stronger than it was a quarter century ago — but elk use the landscape differently with wolves present — they use it in a more natural, ecologically friendly way.

And that means hunters have to hunt elk differently.  They need to cover more ground and move around the landscape more.  In essence, they need to hunt.

Pettit admitted that, too:

Wolves, he said, surely have changed the way deer and elk act in the wilds, and that’s changing the ways hunters must hunt.

Sure, hunters need to hunt differently nowadays, but the elk are still here, they’re here in great numbers, and hunters can still find them, as evidenced by Petit’s recent trip into the backcountry:

“But in that same small basin, on the same morning we saw the eight wolves, we also saw seven cow elk.  Right there in the same little drainage with the wolves.

The very next day, in fact, one of his hunting partners shot a five-point bull elk in the same area.

NRDC and other groups fought hard to stop the premature wolf hunts from proceeding, and it’s difficult to read about Pettit or any other hunter killing a wolf.

But it’s refreshing to see a wolf hunter finally talk straight about wolves in the heated debate over how they should be managed.  I hope others take notice.

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/mskoglund/honesty_from_a_wolf_hunter_abo.html

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Photos: Wiki

Categories posted in: biodiversity,  gray wolf

Tags: elk flourishing among wolves, gray wolf, wolf intolerance

Published in: on October 6, 2009 at 10:06 am  Comments (5)  
Tags: , ,