A gray wolf in Oregon’s northern Wallowa County in February 2017. Officials in Oregon are asking for help locating the person or people responsible for poisoning an entire pack of wolves in the east. state earlier this year.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP
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Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP
A gray wolf in northern Oregon’s Wallowa County in February 2017. Officials in Oregon are asking for help locating the person or people responsible for poisoning a whole pack of wolves in the east. state earlier this year.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP
Officials in Oregon are asking for public assistance to locate the person or people responsible for the poisoning of eight wolves in the eastern part of the state earlier this year.
Oregon State Police are investigating the murders of all five members of the Catherine Pack in Union County, plus three other wolves from other packs, the agency said in a statement Thursday.
“To my knowledge, this is the first pack of wolves to be killed with poison in Oregon,” said OSP Captain Stephanie Bigman of Salem. “To my knowledge, there are no suspects. All leads have been exhausted and that is why we are reaching out to the public for assistance.”
Wolf supporters were stunned by the news.
“This is horrible,” said Sristi Kamal of Wildlife in Portland. “This is clearly intentional and re-offending.”
Oregon only has about 170 wolves within its borders, and the loss of eight “is devastating,” Kamal said.
Sophia Ressler, a staff member of the Center for Biodiversity, said: “The poisoning of the Catherine wolves is tragic and disgusting. “No wolf should suffer such a fate. Horrible events like these show how much more work we need to do to be able to coexist with these critically important animals.”
Teams are giving away $26,000 in rewards
A group of conservation and animal rights groups late Thursday said they were offering a total reward of $26,000 for information leading to a conviction about the poisoning. Rewards provided by Center for Biodiversity, Cascadia Wilderness, Wildlife Conservator, Humane Society of the United States, Northeast Oregon Ecosystem, Oregon Wild, Predator Defense and Guardians of WildEarth.
Wolves once plagued most of the United States but were wiped out from most places by the 1930s under government-sponsored trapping and poisoning campaigns.
More than 2,000 wolves occupy six states in the Northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest after animals from Canada were reintroduced to Idaho and Yellowstone National Parks starting in 1995.
However, wolves have remained absent from most of their historical range. Wildlife advocates say continued protection is needed so they can continue to expand in California, Colorado, Oregon and other states.
The Oregon State Police’s Fish and Wildlife Service was alerted February 9 that a furry wolf from the Catherine Pack may have died.
The soldiers responded and located five dead wolves, three males and two females. The wolves are located southeast of Mount Harris, in Union County. Investigators also found a dead magpie near the dead wolves, the agency said.
The animals were sent to the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s forensic laboratory in Ashland to determine the cause of death.
On March 11, the State Police was informed that a death signal from an additional wolf collar was received at the same general location. Searchers found a dead wolf, a skunk and a magpie very close to the scene. The female wolf was identified as a member of the Keating Pack.
In April, the federal lab released findings consistent with poisoning as the cause of death for all six wolves, a skunk, and two magpies.
Additionally, two other furry wolves were found dead in Union County following the initial incidents. In April, an adult male wolf died from the Five Points Pack located west of Elgin, and in July a young female wolf from the Clark Creek Pack located northeast of La Grande, the county seat.
Poison reports confirmed the presence of different poisons in both wolves, the OSP said.
