Six Arizona Counties say NO to Mexican Wolves

If you want to know about Mexican wolves, don’t ask the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity, or any of the enviros who have elevated wolves to exalted status. Ask the people who have been forced to live with the most destructive predators on the face of the earth.

It was recently reported by Shar Poirier in "County Joins Group for Mexican Wolf Issue," that members of the Board of Supervisors of Cochise County have joined five other Arizona counties to put the health, welfare, and safety of their human residents above that of Mexican wolves. Those counties include Apache, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, and Navajo.

They aren’t buying the myths. They’ve experienced the reality.

These folks question whether or not the so-called "rare Mexican wolves" that were released in Eastern Arizona back in 1998 are truly purebred. It seems that Mexico’s breeding stock was infused with Mexican wolves that had been bred with dogs to widen the gene pool. Hybrids cannot legally be "protected" under the Endangered Species Act.

David Parsons, the Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator, was warned in a letter dated June 2, 1997 by Mexican wolf expert, Roy McBride. McBride was shocked to see that two hybrid lineages were included in the captive breeding program. McBride also warned that these animals would not exhibit truly wild behavior.

Parsons ignored McBride’s warnings, and so the DNA from the fouled genetics pool was determined by the federal government to be part of the "captive breeding pool." Those hybrids are what are now referred to as the "rare Mexican wolf."

Mexican wolves from this DNA pool have exhibited distinctly un-wolf-like behavior since their introduction into the "wild." They have no fear of people and have gravitated to human populations, dogs, livestock, and garbage cans.

Ms. Laura Schneberger wrote about this in the book The Real Wolf. She and her family live and ranch in New Mexico among the Mexican wolf-dogs. Here’s an article about the Schnebergers. Be sure to read Laura’s comments at the end. See Wolves Missing in Gila Forest.

Here’s an excerpt from the article "County Joins Group for Mexican Wolf Issue":

The supervisors contracted with Darling Geomatics Consultants’ Mary Darling who went through the history of the wolf recovery program and Mexico’s breeding stock that was infused by Mexican wolves bred with dogs to widen the gene pool. That creates a sub-breed that she says may not be a protected species.

Darling notes, “Cochise County and Sierra Vista are opposed to any expansion of the Mexican wolf program because: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has failed to meet its legal obligations to mitigate damages to date; the genetics of the Mexican wolf are still in question; USFWS failed to perform an adequate National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis of impacts of its proposed expansion; and a number of other legal violations.”

Darling also brought up the issue of wolves feeding on cattle where deer and elk populations are diminished.

Her 189-page document draws a correlation of the original intent of the program started in 1982 in which the wolves at a breeding facility in the U.S. would be expatriated to Mexico for pack expansion in the wolves’ historic range.

The goal was to establish 100 wolves in the Mexican recovery area and that has been met, Darling’s report states.

“The goals recorded were for 100 wolves and 5,000 square miles of habitat. Those goals have been exceeded,” she writes. “There are at least 83 Mexican wolves in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area (BRWRA) plus the 2014 pups plus adult and young of the year. The Fort Apache Indian Reservation has an unknown number of uncounted wolves.”

She commended USFWS for reaching the goal of 100 wolves in the wild and managing Mexican wolves within areas between 8,888 and 9,839 square miles and exceeding the recovery goals.

“Therefore, the recovery plan goal for captive wolves was met and more than doubled,” Darling wrote. “Now that the USFWS has accomplished their recovery goal in the U.S., they should turn to Mexico and assist that country in raising their Mexican wolf population number to at least 100 wolves. This would be less costly and more biologically sound since this is the core habitat for this subspecies. Ninety percent of the historical habitat for Mexican wolves is in Mexico. Ninety percent of the recovery should be in Mexico.”