Gray Wolves Rebound, To Neighbors’ Unease
Close Encounters, Animal Killings Worry Wisconsin Town; Federal Government Pushes to Allow Hunting, Trapping
By JOE BARRETT, WSJ Online, May 29, 2010 [here]
HARRISON, Wis. — David Schoone, a farmer in this lush region of northern Wisconsin, says a lone gray wolf sneaked up on his school-age daughter three years ago as she bounced on a trampoline in his backyard.
More recently, Mr. Schoone was chased into his pickup truck by a wolf, and his cousin’s wife had to run from two wolves that descended on her from opposite sides of a shed. This month, he lost two young steer to wolves.
“We gotta watch all the time,” said Mr. Schoone, 43 years old, who carries a loaded rifle when he works in his fields or goes for a walk, even though he can only legally shoot a wolf in the act of attacking a human. “They don’t show any fear of us.”
Gray wolves, which resemble tall, lean huskies and can weigh more than 100 pounds, were hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states by 1950. Since being placed under the protection of the Endangered Species Act in 1974, they have made a dramatic comeback, with some 4,000 in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan and nearly 1,700 in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. … [more]