Montana man kills two wolves in his barn

TROY, Mont. — There are fewer wolves on the prowl in Lincoln County, after a man shot two wolves attacking his goats.

A man who lives west of Troy just off U.S. 2 on the Kootenai River shot and killed the predators Sunday morning, July 10.

The man, who lives with his wife and son, did not want to be identified due to possible harassment from animal advocacy groups. But he did share his story with the Hagadone News Network.

“I had never had an encounter with wolves before this and I’ve spent a lot of time hunting deer and elk here and in northern Idaho,” the man said.

The man said the first attack happened the morning of Saturday, July 9, when his son went to check on the family's pet rabbits and found they had been killed.

“Their cages were smashed in and they were killed, but not eaten,” the man said. “I wasn’t sure what had done it. I thought maybe a coyote or a feral, domestic dog had done it.”

However, on Sunday morning, he said the family was getting ready for church when they heard a disturbance in the goat pen.

“My wife could hear the goats screaming and she said ‘Something’s eating the goats.’ Then I heard it, too, and I grabbed my son’s deer rifle and ran barefoot across the yard in my skivvies.

“I stopped short of the barn because I still wasn’t sure of what was happening and it was hard to see in the back of the barn.”

The man yelled, prompting a light-colored wolf to come out where he could see it.

“I hesitated for a second, but then I got him in the scope and shot,” he said. “I lost sight of it when the rifle recoiled and then I saw it again. I thought to myself ‘That’s pretty poor shooting for something that’s about 50 feet away,’ but I shot again and it dropped.”

The man said he rushed to the barn to check on the goats and that’s when he realized he’d shot two gray wolves.

“I’ve never even seen a wolf while I was hunting and I spend a lot of time in the woods,” he said. “I’ve heard them imitating bull elk sounds and I believe I saw one in the headlights while I was driving, but I wasn’t even sure of that.”

The man said he was relieved after finding his goats hadn’t been killed.

“They’re sorta like pets and we were training them to be pack animals when we go into the mountains,” he said. “We took them to the vet and while they were tore up, they didn’t need stitches. I’m not sure how they’ll ultimately do, but they are on the mend. I’m glad they didn’t get disemboweled or had an artery torn. It would have been much different.”

The man said Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Game Warden Sawyer Johnson came to pick up the wolves.

“He was very surprised at where they were, but he felt they were two young males that had been dispersed from their pack, but he would have to see what the biologist said,” the man said.

According to a 1999 study by wildlife biologists Diane K. Boyd and Daniel Pletscher in The Journal of Wildlife Management, wolves disperse to regulate the population and genetic exchange, which helps them survive disease or environmental changes. But the study also found that 90% of wolves that dispersed were killed by people and that fatalities occurred closer to roads.

According to Dillon Tabish, regional communication manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Region 1, the age of the animals is not known and they weren't weighed.

Officials didn't say which pack the animals may have come from, adding that "wolf packs exist across western Montana."

The last known wolf attack on livestock was during the summer of 2021 when federal wildlife services investigated and confirmed a wolf killed a cow in the Trego area, Tabish wrote in an email.

The man said he was very surprised that the wolves had come in that close to where people live.

“There are six other homes within 150 yards of us, 15 homes within 400 yards and 20 homes within a quarter mile of here,” he said. “And this wasn’t late at night or very early in the morning. It was about 10 a.m.”

The man, an avid hunter who’s spent plenty of time in the region, said he’s found a number of wolf-killed animals, deer and elk, where he pursues game.

“Within the last three years, both elk I found were a 5x5 and a 6x6, all within 10 miles of here,” he said.

The incident has made the man realize he needs to erect a higher fence inside the small barn where the goats were housed.

“It’s a 5-foot fence, but I’ll have to add to it, get it to about 8 feet because they got in there without any trouble,” he said.

The goats are currently recovering in an area enclosed with 8-foot fencing.

“I didn’t set out to kill these wolves, but they were in my barn trying to kill my goats,” he said. “People need to realize wolves are not these cuddly, furry animals and they are among us.”

Also, in 2013, the state Legislature passed a law that allows landowners or their agents to take a wolf on the landowner's property at any time without the purchase of a wolf license when the wolf is a potential threat to human safety, livestock or dogs.