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Two collared wolves from Colorado\u2019s North Park pack killed a working dog on March 13 and fatally injured a pet dog on March 14. The dogs lived on neighboring ranches located about four miles from each other in Jackson County, Colorado, the Coloradoan<\/a> reports. A veterinarian euthanized the pet dog due to the injuries.<\/p>\n The two dogs are the first victims of the North Park pack since November 2022. They are also the 11th and 12th confirmed livestock or pet depredations in the state since the pack killed its first calf<\/a> in December 2021. The North Park pack formed in June 2021 when a female from Wyoming\u2019s Snake River pack had a litter of six pups with a male she traveled into Colorado with earlier in the year, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife<\/a>.<\/p>\n Greg Sykes considered Cisco, his 7-year-old border collie, \u201cthe best hired man I ever had,\u201d according to Steamboat Radio<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cI found him dead 30 yards from the house,\u201d Sykes said. \u201cCalled CPW and they came out and confirmed it was a wolf kill. Two collared wolves who were at my house at 4 a.m.\u201d<\/p>\n The wolves reportedly returned to Sykes\u2019 ranch around midnight on Monday before wandering to neighboring Roy Gollobith\u2019s ranch. On Tuesday morning, Gollobith saw his pet mixed-breed named Blaze standing outside with his head hanging low. <\/p>\n \u201cI called him and he just turned around with this glazed looked,\u201d Gollobith told Steamboat Radio. \u201cThen I saw blood on his throat. Sure enough he was pretty tore up.\u201d<\/p>\n Gollobith\u2019s wife rushed Blaze to a veterinarian in Laramie, Wyo., where the dog\u2019s injuries necessitated euthanasia.<\/p>\n \u201cThey said there was too much damage to his throat and abdomen to do anything, so they put him down,\u201d Gollobith said.<\/p>\n He recalled a time last year when Blaze got in a fight with two wolves near the house.<\/p>\n \u201cHe (Blaze) had it behind the front leg,\u201d Gollobith said. \u201cThe wolves turned on him and chased him back to the house. There was blood and hair out there but it wasn\u2019t Blaze\u2019s, it was the wolf\u2019s. I\u2019ve seen him attack bears. He just doesn\u2019t give up.\u201d<\/p>\n These attacks come as CPW and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continue working on the gray wolf reintroduction plan. Voters passed a state law<\/a> in 2020 that requires CPW develop a reintroduction plan by the end of 2023. FWS held its first public meeting<\/a> in Grand Junction on March 14. <\/p>\n Gray wolves are currently listed as endangered in Colorado, which means ranchers can\u2019t legally kill wolves that attack their livestock. (The only instance killing a gray wolf is currently legal in Colorado is in defense of human life.) FWS has proposed a \u201c10j rule\u201d as part of the reintroduction, in reference to section 10j of the Endangered Species Act<\/a>. This would mean the reintroduced gray wolves would be \u201cexperimental\u201d and their status would change from \u201cendangered\u201d to \u201cthreatened.\u201d This would create a route for ranchers to take lethal measures to protect livestock. <\/p>\n According to the current draft plan<\/a>, livestock owners would need permits to kill wolves as a livestock protection measure. In this case, the state would consider working dogs as livestock. But like with any wolf kill resulting from a livestock depredation, owners would need to report the kill to CPW within 24 hours and a thorough investigation would ensue. Investigators would require a \u201cpreponderance of evidence\u201d that wolves were the culprit in order to rule the kill wolf-caused.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter issuance of a permit, any landowner may immediately take a gray wolf in the act of attacking livestock on their private land or land that they are legally grazing using a federal land-use permit provided the landowner provides evidence of livestock, stock animals recently (less than 24 hours) wounded harassed or killed by wolves and state or federal agents are able to confirm that the animals were attacked by wolves,\u201d the draft plan reads. \u201cThe carcass of any wolf taken and the area surrounding it should not be disturbed in order to preserve physical evidence.\u201d<\/p>\nWhen Wolves Kill Dogs<\/h2>\n
Wolf Reintroduction Plans in Colorado<\/h2>\n