Wolves kill miniature horses
St. Regis - When John and Mary Cheesman went to check on their miniature horses on Friday they noticed that four were missing. Being no more than 22 inches tall at the withers, John thought perhaps they’d slipped through a hole in the fence.
St. Regis - When John and Mary Cheesman went to check on their miniature horses on Friday they noticed that four were missing. Being no more than 22 inches tall at the withers, John thought perhaps they’d slipped through a hole in the fence.
“We went down to a corner of the field because they liked to stay under the trees sometimes and I saw the rib cage there and we started looking for the others and we found them the same way,” Mary said.
The couple learned that they had lost all four of their horses to wolves: a three-year-old gelding, a nine-month-old gelding, a two-year-old filly and a three-year-old filly. The tiny equines were the result of a 14-year breeding project they’d been working on.
“As far as these horses go, they were the end result of a 14-year project I was working on to breed a horse under 30 inches and now they’re gone. I’ll be 100 years old by the time I get back to the same point,” John said.
“They were real nice little horses, pretty sweet. We were actually about to take them to homes where they would have been played with,” said Mary.
On Saturday, a wildlife specialist from the United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) wildlife services was out to investigate the incident. John Steuber, state director for USDA wildlife services, said that the specialist did confirm that the four horses were killed by wolves. Steuber said that they look at the carcass for hemorrhaging when the animal was killed, trauma, bruising, tracks and the distance between bite marks when they bite an animal and how the animal was fed upon.
“It was pretty obvious in the case of the horses that they had been heavily fed upon,” he said. “It could only have been one very large animal or in this case a bunch of animals.”
Steuber said that they are contracted with Fish, Wildlife and Parks to investigate such situations and said that they would wait to hear from them as to what action should be taken, as FWP is responsible for the management of the wolves since they were delisted. Liz Bradley, FWP biologist said that they ran traps over the weekend in case the wolves might return, but they didn’t. She said that they have gone ahead and authorized for the removal of what they are calling the “Superior pack,” which they believe consists of about five wolves that have been causing trouble in the area. She said that it is likely other wolves could come into the area, but said that they will continue to monitor their behavior and hope they don’t develop destructive behavior patterns.
“It’s a really sad incident,” Bradley said, “and nobody wants to see this happen, but we’re trying to remove the animals responsible and doing our best to make sure this doesn’t happen again. That’s why we keep an eye on the packs and encourage residents to report sightings so we can monitor their behavior. But it’s a really unfortunate incident.”
Wolves were listed on the endangered species list back in 1974 and by law they had to be protected. Bradley said that wolves were naturally recovering in Northwest Montana in the 80s and that they were then introduced to Central Idaho and Yellowstone in 1995-1996. The wolves then grew in numbers and dispersed throughout the state.
Bradley said young wolves leave the pack looking for new territory and mates and can travel up to 100 miles. The wolves were placed in the Yellowstone and Central Idaho areas as it was the most suitable habitat. Bradley said that the wolves in Mineral County are a combination of the wolves placed in those two areas and the ones that recovered naturally in northwestern Montana.
John said he doesn’t understand why someone would pay millions of dollars to bring the wolves back into an area when 100 years ago individuals were putting bounties on wolves to have them killed off.
“We have these people in New York that want everything to look like Disneyland. You can’t cut a tree because a spotted owl made his nest there and it goes on and on. I’m upset, but there’s not much you can do. I can’t believe the ignorance of people who brought them in. How many animals lose their lives each year just to feed these wolves? What are they going to eat when they run out of everything else?”