To protect elk and livestock, U.S. agency considers again shooting wolves from airplanes

Federal agencies that protect recovering wolf populations in the West are now considering killing some of them from planes to protect wildlife and livestock, reports Kim Murphy of the Los Angeles Times.

Officials have secretly deployed sharpshooters in helicopters to kill wolves in the past, but Idaho officials said this week they would consider redeploying this program to kill up to 75 wolves threatening elk near the Montana border.

A 2006 photo (above) depicting a U.S. Wildlife Services plane decorated with 58 paw-print decals representing each wolf killed by shooters was recently published by Ken Cole on the Wildlife News blog, Murphy reports. He told her there's been a culture within the agency depicting wolves as the enemy, and "putting stickers representing your kills on the side of your plane is a pretty good representation of that." Lyndsay Cole, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told Murphy the stickers "represent wolves lethally removed for confirmed depredation on livestock or livestock protection dogs, with permission from the wolf management agency." They were approved by Idaho Wildlife Services, but were removed in 2009 after officials "recognized that they would be considered offensive by some individuals."

Wildlife management officials say a crucial part of helping wolves, livestock and humans coexist in the West has been removing those known to repeatedly attack sheep, cattle or prized game populations. However, wolf conservation advocates say there's no need to kill wolves from planes, and that the action provides "evidence of a cavalier attitude among federal agents whose aerial operations sometimes leave wolves painfully wounded for days before dying." (Read more)