Letters to the Editor for May 8, 2009

One way to deal with sheep killers

To the editor:

Why is it that we can spend taxpayers’ money to capture and collar a predator that is taking from the ranchers what the ranchers rely on for their living?

By defending the wolves, the Defenders of Wildlife organization is getting rid of much more wildlife than it is saving.

I had a friend from Salem visit last week and we took a 100-mile tour, down through Huntington and then over to Brownlee Reservoir, the full length of the lake and then back over the top to Richland and up the Powder river to Baker City. In that trip of over four hours, we spotted 6 deer, 5 antelope, and one chukar.

I may be giving up my age, but I can remember making trips from Baker to Richland and seeing 300 or 400 deer from the highway, and never leave the pavement.

If we keep protecting the predators, what they prey on will remain in decline — look at the seals and the salmon on the Columbia River, the deer and cougars everywhere, and now we introduce a known predator, and are going to put a collar on it and put it back in the sheep pen.

It is an unwritten law with the ranchers that if they catch your pet dog, no matter what breed or how good of dog it is, chasing your livestock, you can shoot it, and your neighbor will not say a word.

In most of our lifetimes, at this rate of propagation, we will live to hear of someone’s child or grandchild being attacked by a wolf.

In conclusion, I will make a statement I have heard for many of my 62 years: There is only one way to deal with a sheep-killing dog — you have to kill the dog.        

Larry Smith

Baker City