Environmental Group Pays Ranchers for Livestock Loss

January 3, 2000

In a new twist in the animal defenders versus rancher-farmer livestock losses, the Defenders of Wildlife says it has paid almost $50,000 to compensate ranchers for losses from wold and grizzly activity in 1999. The compensation program ";continues to buy tolerance for wolves and grizzly bears,"; says the DOW.

";We're replacing `shoot, shovel and shut up' with `prevent and pay,'"; says Hank Fischer, northern Rockies representative of the group who initiated the compensations program in 1987. ";It's important to note that we're developing ways to prevent predation and that we step in to alleviate financial concerns when predation does occur.";

The 1999 compensation includes $35,070.77 paid for wolf incidents and $14,001 for grizzly incidents. Of the wolf compensation, $2,152 was paid in Arizona for predation by recently reintroduced Mexican wolves.

Also, DOW says it has worked to install electric fences, set up light and sound displays, to use guard dogs and other measures to ward off wolves and grizzlies from livestock areas. ";You can have both wild predators and successful livestock operations; it doesn't have to be one or the other,"; says Fischer.

This year, the group plans to support research by Dan Pletscher of the University of Montana on various non-lethal approaches to prevent wolf attacks on livestock.

PRO FARMER notes that one positive aspect of DOW's actions is that ";at least one environmental group acknowledges that farmers and ranchers are being asked to shoulder the losses from other Americans' eagerness to bring back large carnivores"; even though the $50,000 is ";amazingly small compared to the millions of dollars expended to re-wolf the Pacific Northwest.";