Way to go Wisconsin! Cant wait till they list them again as a furbearer..

Hey Chappy why dontcha go walk your dog over there laugh

Glowball,, thanks for the link.. I saw this when reading the cougar/kitty conflict.
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Problem wolves being shot in Wisconsin

Associated Press

For the first time in decades, timber wolves are being shot in Wisconsin to prevent them from killing more livestock and other domestic animals.

Four wolves have been trapped within the past two weeks and killed in northwest Wisconsin, Adrian Wydeven, the wolf expert for the state Department of Natural Resources, said Wednesday.

The killing is permitted because the wolf has been downgraded from an endangered species to a threatened species. It was downgraded federally on April 1 and the state changed it in Oct. 1999.

"With a healthy wolf population, we feel it is just best to eliminate wolves that have become habitual killers of livestock populations," he said.

Until this spring, problem wolves were trapped and relocated within the state, he said. Last year, 17 were relocated.

The four wolves killed so far were captured on two farms in Burnett and Barron counties, Wydeven said. They were then shot in the head, he said.

Wolves have killed at least five calves and four sheep this spring, Wydeven said.

At a monthly meeting of the state Natural Resources Board in Stevens Point on Wednesday, Board Chairman Trig Solberg complained that wolf numbers are getting out of hand, making the animal almost a nuisance, and he questioned the accuracy of the state's count of wolves.

Another board member, James Tiefenthaler, asked the DNR to prepare a report on what it would take to have the wolf listed as a fur-bearing species, paving the way for it to be hunted and trapped in Wisconsin.

The board took no action on wolf-related issues.

The timber wolf is a native species that was wiped out in Wisconsin by the late 1950s after decades of bounty hunting. Since the animal was granted protection as an endangered species in the mid 1970s, wolves migrated into the state from Minnesota and their numbers have been growing ever since.

According to Wydeven, counts indicated there were 335 wolves across the state late last winter — just shy of the goal of 350 — in 94 packs.

It's probably the most wolves in the state since the 1800s, he said.

The population has been growing an average of about 20 percent a year since 1985, he said.

Through Wednesday, Wydeven had received 32 complaints alleging wolves had killed or injured domestic animals or livestock this year.

Before the state could allow the trapping or hunting of wolves, the animal would have to be removed from the threatened species list by both state and federal agencies, Wydeven said.

That is planned, but the earliest both approvals could be given is late 2004 or early 2005, Wydeven said.

The state then determines how to manage the animals, he said.