Silence on the lambs

Wolves have killed 24 lambs and one calf this month in Baker County.

Livestock raising is the biggest industry in Baker County.

The country is mired in a recession.

The Oregon Legislature’s response to this unsettling equation?

Silence.

Wolves have killed 24 lambs and one calf this month in Baker County.

Livestock raising is the biggest industry in Baker County.

The country is mired in a recession.

The Oregon Legislature’s response to this unsettling equation?

Silence.

Nothing.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Salem have made excellent progress toward passing a bill requiring certain restaurant chains to post on their menus the calorie and fat content of their food.

Small wonder that many rural Oregonians believe their problems rank low on the list of priorities at the Capitol.

Or they’re not on the list at all.

The most frustrating aspect of the Legislature’s inertia is that lawmakers have had several chances, dating to 2005, to give ranchers the authority — albeit of a very limited sort — to protect their herds from wolves.

The most recent try was made by Rep. Cliff Bentz, the Ontario Republican who represents Baker County in the state House of Representatives.

Earlier this year, before wolves killed the lambs and calf in Baker County, Bentz introduced House Bill 3383.

The bill would allow ranchers to kill a wolf that is attacking livestock.

Now, it’s illegal to kill a wolf in such a situation.

Oregon’s 2005 wolf management plan includes a provision giving ranchers permission to kill wolves that are attacking livestock, but that provision can’t take effect until the Legislature changes state law.

Lawmakers declined to make those changes in 2005 and in 2007.

Today, of course, the situation is different.

Wolves have attacked, and killed, livestock.

Yet Democratic lawmakers who run the show in Salem refused to even schedule a public hearing on Bentz’s bill before last week’s deadline.

House Bill 3383 is as dead as the lambs and the calf.

We didn’t think Bentz’s bill would overcome Democratic opposition and become law.

Ranchers aren’t enthusiastic about the legislation anyway — they say it’s unlikely they will ever catch wolves attacking livestock.

Nonetheless, we think Democratic lawmakers had an obligation to schedule a hearing on Bentz’s bill.

Doing so would have given ranchers — including Curt Jacobs, who owned the lambs, and Tik Moore, who owned the calf — the chance to explain how wolves threaten their livelihood.

Maybe lawmakers think they already know what’s happening in Baker County.

They’ve certainly proved, at any rate, that they don’t care.