{"id":30043,"date":"2023-12-22T17:15:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-23T00:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-ranchers-murky-rules-about-killing-wolves-sets-them-up-for-big-livestock-losses\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:09:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:09:43","slug":"colorado-ranchers-murky-rules-about-killing-wolves-sets-them-up-for-big-livestock-losses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-ranchers-murky-rules-about-killing-wolves-sets-them-up-for-big-livestock-losses\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado ranchers: Murky rules about killing wolves sets them up for big livestock losses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Don
Don Gittleson, seen here on Dec. 26, 2021, discusses how the wolves entered his ranch outside Walden from the steep hillside and where he found the carcass of a heifer calf inside the corral during the previous week. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Don Gittleson isn\u2019t a big letter-writer, but when a wolf wearing a Colorado Parks and Wildlife tracking collar attacked his calf on the morning of Dec. 13 he felt he had no recourse but to write to Kris Middledorf, area manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife in Steamboat Springs.<\/p>\n

Gittleson could legally have killed the wolf if he had caught it in the act of mauling his calf. But he has said repeatedly he doesn\u2019t want to, calling depredating wolves \u201cCPW\u2019s problem.\u201d What he\u2019s losing patience with now, he says, are regulations in the agency\u2019s wolf management plan that delay it from dealing with a \u201cchronically depredating\u201d wolf.<\/p>\n

The wolf in Gittleson\u2019s letter \u2013 No. 2101 \u2013 has killed or injured seven of his cows, including a calf last week, six of his neighbor\u2019s cows and four working dogs. Another wolf \u2013 No. 2103 \u2013 killed the three lambs at rancher Philip Anderson\u2019s place. Both ranches are in North Park.<\/p>\n

Gittleson\u2019s letter comes days after Colorado Parks and Wildlife on Monday released five wolves in a remote corner of Grand County. The pair of Jackson County wolves are responsible for about 20 injured or killed domestic animals since 2021.<\/p>\n

The letter asks if 20 mauled or dead animals qualify the wolves as \u201cchronically depredating.\u201d Under the Colorado wolf reintroduction plan, that would mean the wolves can be killed. But the plan does not clearly define what makes a wolf \u201cchronically depredating.\u201d The Colorado plan states wildlife officials will make that determination on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n

But Gittleson says CPW\u2019s plan makes it impossible to determine chronic depredation because it doesn\u2019t define how many kills in a particular period qualifies as \u201cchronic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without that definition, he says, determining when to remove a wolf becomes a difficult proposition. \u201cIt just kicks the can down the road of the agency deciding when it can send one of its own managers in \u2013 the first line of defense \u2013 or call in USDA wildlife services\u201d to dispatch the wolf. Issuing a rancher a permit to kill one is the last option, he added. And even then, he said, a rancher finding an opportune time to kill a wolf is close to impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen things come around to harass the cows, so far here, it\u2019s been at night,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s not like you just walk out the front door at high noon and there\u2019s the wolves and you shoot them. (To see them at night), you need artificial light or thermal imaging \u2013 and those things aren\u2019t legal to hunt with. So I asked what is legal to use to protect your animals? CPW has tools to locate the wolves with their collars. So they can go out and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan states conflict minimization and nonlethal measures are the priority tools to prevent wolf-livestock conflict. It also says in instances of chronic depredation, owners of livestock must file applications with CPW if they seek to \u201cinjuriously or lethally take gray wolves.\u201d But they must wait until a depredating incident is confirmed before CPW will issue a lethal take permit.<\/p>\n

Gittleson said he hasn\u2019t yet received an answer to the letter he filed earlier this week, which said \u201cif the depredating wolves aren\u2019t dealt with soon, when these two males find mates and reproduce, they will teach their young to duplicate their current behavior, which will compound the problem significantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he has pressed CPW for lethal removal \u201cso that they do not continue to affect the livelihood and mental well-being of the agriculture members of this state.\u201d And, he says he has had several offers from other hunters to kill the offending wolf.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut some have wanted to video the whole thing and put it on Facebook and I don\u2019t want that,\u201d he added. \u201cI don\u2019t want a big production. I don\u2019t want everyone showing how they got a wolf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compensation, not killing<\/div>\n

So far, CPW shows no sign of removing the wolf that attacked Gittleson\u2019s calf.<\/p>\n

Instead, the agency has offered compensation for injuries it caused. CPW provides reimbursement for damages caused by gray wolves to livestock and animals used for guard\/herding purposes. And the agency may provide help under its Gray Wolf Compensation and Conflict Minimization Program.<\/p>\n

Gittleson will be eligible for veterinary compensation up to $15,000. If the cow is euthanized or dies from its injuries, he will also be compensated for its fair market value up to $15,000.<\/p>\n

Gittleson said he plans to accept CPW\u2019s payment for the calf\u2019s injuries, which a veterinarian treated. They later lanced the calf\u2019s leg due to swelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s on antibiotics, so we\u2019ll see,\u201d Gittleson said nearly a week after the mauling. The attack may have \u201cstifled\u201d the calf, hobbling its leg similar to a human\u2019s after a blown knee if not treated.<\/p>\n

Anderson, a former president of the Colorado Cattlemen\u2019s Association, said if he were able to see a wolf \u201cand put a scope on it,\u201d he might kill it. \u201cBut first of all, we\u2019d have to prove that it was depredating livestock.\u201d The surest way to do that would be to capture it on video. But like the attacks on Gittleson\u2019s livestock, when a wolf attacked his son\u2019s sheep, it happened at night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d have to prove wolves got ahold of the flank or the back leg on a calf or maybe got ahold of the shank on the lamb. And what if that first time you saw it happening you got all excited and shot the wolf? You better darn well be able to find that animal it was harassing or biting. So what if I shoot it and then [the animal it was attacking] just survived, like that calf of Don\u2019s that got attacked last week?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou might be visiting me with an orange suit on and I wouldn\u2019t want that to happen. I\u2019ve got a family here and I\u2019ve got this ranch I got to take care of. I don\u2019t want to spend my time in Ca\u00f1on City (prison) or wherever they put me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ranchers want wildlife officials to define \u2018chronic depredation\u2019 and deal with two problem wolves in North Park<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,28,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-headlines","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80946,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30043\/revisions\/80946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30043"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}