The few wolves already in Colorado are wreaking bloody havoc with dogs and cattle, U.S. Congresswoman Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado said.
She told fellow lawmakers of the terrible fate of one of her constituent’s service dogs, “Scooby Doo,” recently killed by wolves.
“Scooby Doo had his stomach ripped out and wide open,” she said Thursday, during discussion before the U.S. House Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee.
She also displayed numerous graphic photographs of mangled dog and cattle carcasses, which she said resulted from wolf attacks.
The subcommittee took no action regarding a bill she introduced and is sponsoring, House Resolution 754, the Trust and Science Act, which calls for wolves to be delisted across the Lower 48 states.
The North Park wolf pack, founded by wolves that migrated from Wyoming in 2021, is Colorado’s only established pack so far, and has been blamed for numerous cattle and dog deaths, mostly in Jackson County, Colorado – which is part of the pack’s territory.
That included the March 13 killing of a working cattle dog named “Cisco” owned by Jackson County, Colorado ranchers Donna and Greg Sykes – which Boebert also cited.
More Colorado Wolves To Come
Wolves in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho have been delisted and placed under the states’ management. That excludes packs inside Yellowstone and Teton parks, which remain under federal protection. All three states have designated wolf hunting seasons. And in roughly 85 percent of Wyoming – including all along the Colorado state line – wolves may be shot on sight at any time.
Wolves elsewhere in the Lower 48, Colorado, the Pacific Northwest and Midwest, remain under ESA protection.
Colorado plans to reintroduce about 50 more wolves to areas in the West Slope, starting by the end of this year. That state has considered implementing wolf hunting seasons, but probably not for several more years.
Meanwhile, the Center For Biological Diversity has threatened a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service, claiming that agency should protect wolves that cross from Colorado into Wyoming. The Forest Service should ban the killing of wolves on the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, which straddles the state line, the environmental group claims.
Some wolves from the North Park pack have probably already been killed after crossing into Wyoming. Three subadult female wolves killed legally in Wyoming near the Colorado state line are thought to have been members of that pack.
‘We Look To Wyoming’
Boebert’s bill will would hand management of wolves over to the states immediately, and completely remove any management by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Boebert’s press secretary, Jake Settle, told Cowboy State Daily.
“This is primarily for Colorado, because she’s Colorado’s representative, but we’ve heard concerns about wolves from people all over the West, including Wyoming,” he said. “We look to Wyoming as a success story of state management of wolves.”
Disputed Claims
While speaking before the subcommittee, Boebert made some disputed claims.
She started her opening testimony with a grisly non-sequitur, showing graphic photos of alleged full-term abortions from the Washington, D.C. area.
Since the discussion was about the ESA “I’m wondering if my colleagues would put babies on the Endangered Species List?” she said.
She also claimed that wolves are frequently a threat to humans, saying that since 2002, there had been 500 wolf attacks on people, including 50 fatalities, though she didn’t say where those attacks had occurred.
If those numbers are accurate, they likely include reports from all over the world. Wolf attacks on people in North America are extremely rare. One relatively recent recorded fatal attack in North America was in 2005, when Kenton Carnegie, 22, was killed in Saskatchewan near a uranium mine. Wolves there had become unusually fearless of humans because people had been feeding them, according to news reports from the time.
