WOLVES: Time to kill some myths

Comments on your article of Aug. 28, “Rally to Honor Killed Wolves,” show that many people are misinformed about the impact of wolves on livestock and wildlife. It is time that these oft repeated mythologies be laid to rest.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture states that wolves are responsible for less than one-half of 1 percent of livestock depredation. Furthermore, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation reports that elk population in the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming increased from 270,947 in 1984 to 360,000 in 2009, an almost 33 percent gain.

Scare stories about Echinococcus (tapeworm) infections being brought in by reintroduced wolves are just that. All those wolves were treated with antihelmintic drugs. Northwest state health authorities and veterinarians have consistently stated that Echinococcus was endemic here in dogs and coyotes long before wolves were reintroduced, and that the chances of human infection are minimal.

Idaho contains about 20,000 black bears, 1.3 million people and more than 2.2 million cattle, yet the state wants to reduce the number of wolves to 150. No reputable biologist that I know of believes that such a number would be anything but a relict population, genetically threatened by inbreeding and possibly extinction. Even Ed Bangs, who was U.S. Fish & Wildlife Wolf Recovery Coordinator, recently admitted that this number of wolves “is not defensible.”

Interestingly enough, the lead article in the journal Science, September 2011, “Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth,” emphasizes the value of wolves and other top predators in keeping a healthy balance in our ecosystems.

KEN FISCHMAN, Ph.D.

Sandpoint