Dear HCN,
If I concentrate really
hard and cross my fingers behind my back, I can summon up a grain
of sympathy for ranchers in Montana who lose a calf to a wolf (HCN,
5/27/02: Wolf at the door). But one group for whom my sympathy is
precisely zero is hunters who go after mountain lions with dogs,
particularly in wolf reintroduction areas. I grinned broadly on
reading in Ray Ring’s article that a “hunter” (they hardly deserve
that label) in Montana lost a dog to a pack of wolves. There is no
small irony in the man’s visceral description of the death of his
beloved blue-tick hound. At the time, he was intent on “shooting”
his trapped quarry from the sporting distance of, oh, about 15
feet.
One fact that was unfortunately missing
from Ray Ring’s otherwise informative piece is that wolves are
fiercely territorial and will attack, and possibly eviscerate, not
only trespassers of their own species, but any canine, be it
coyote, blue-tick hound, or toy poodle. It does not reflect
viciousness, but rather an evolved ability to keep competitors at a
reasonable distance. Hunting with dogs in Wolf Country is more than
just barbaric and absurd – it is an excellent way to lose dogs. If
wolf reintroduction eventually has the spinoff benefit of
discouraging this ludicrous practice, we will have gained far more
than we ever expected from the
program.
Bernard Foy
Santa Fe, New
Mexico
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Zero sympathy for hunters.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
