Game Cam Confirms Sheep Killed By Wolves 4/17/2009
A motion-detector camera caught several wolves killing lambs on a ranch in Grand Pass, Oregon, this week, the first documented attack in the state since 1999, the Associated Press has reported.
Last Friday, Curt Jacobs, a third generation sheep farmer, and his nephew arrived at the sheep pen near their home, only to find that more than a dozen sheep had been herded away from the pen and killed. Jacobs at first suspected a cougar, but called the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife after discovering wolf tracks near the lamb carcasses.
Jacobs did some quick thinking and installed the cameras, along with lamb carcasses as bait, to catch the wolves in action. That Monday, Jacobs played the recording to find two wolves staring back at him in the camera, and more lambs being killed by the wolves.
"It's all right to have the animal be here," Jacobs said from his ranch. "But if every time you went to work in the morning, somebody stopped you and took your lunch pail and you couldn't say nothing about it, it would get old after awhile."
Wolves are protected in Oregon even if the animal is found predating on livestock. Wildlife agents are allowed to trap, tag and monitor the wolves’ movements.
Jacobs’s farm is now being protected by guard dogs and an electric fence, provided by the state department. Jacobs plans to file for compensation of his $7,300 loss of 23 lambs with the Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation group that supports the return of wolves.
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