DNR Finds No Evidence Of Fights Between Hunting Dogs, Wolves

The Department of Natural Resources says it found no evidence of illegal interactions between hunting dogs and wolves when the agency examined wolf carcasses this spring.

This past wolf hunting season was the first in which hunters were allowed to use dogs to pursue wolves. Wolf advocates feared that there would be many illegal fights between wolves and dogs, but the DNR says that after examining the skinned carcasses of 27 of the 35 wolves killed by hunters using dogs, evaluation of any law violations was inconclusive.

The DNR’s Dave McFarland says that on one wolf with only a partly removed pelt, there were bite wounds from an undetermined species.

“They were minor bite wounds — not anything that would lead to a fatal injury to the animal,” said McFarland.

Mcfarland says the cause of death for all the examined wolves was a bullet wound. He that eight wolves were not evaluated because either only the skulls were submitted, the DNR mistakenly put the wolves in the non-dog chase group, the wolves weren’t at the evaluation site, or they had tags that fell off during transport.

The whole process is disappointing to Rachel Tilseth of Wolves of Douglas County Wisconsin.

“I don’t think it was thorough, and I’m not surprised at all by this report that everything’s inconclusive,” said Tilseth. “After all, the carcasses were decomposed and there was steps in between when they were registered.“

Some wolf advocates promise to raise concerns about last year’s wolf season report at Monday’s meeting of the state’s Wolf Advisory Committee.