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Thoran · 10-18-2002, 03:33 PM

We've got some extreme positions on this issue so far... I think this is going to be an interesting "debate" [img]smile.gif[/img] .

Wolves are indeed Intelligent creatures, but they live by rules that we in our comfortable suburban lives have all but forgotten. Natural law is very often brutal and ugly, but it is also logical. The apparently pointless destruction of livestock (apparently illogical behavior to kill so much that there's no hope of ever eating it all) might be a misfiring of some natural behavior. In the wild the only time a wolf (or dingo... which do the same thing) would get the opportunity to kill LOTS of something at once would be in a severe overpopulation situation, in which case the wolf behavior would be akin to increasing the hunting limit to try to bring a population down to safe levels (just a theory on my part there).

I think a lot of our love for wolves comes from the fact that dogs have been our companions for an amazingly long time, and both humans and canines have benefited greatly from the association (except for the abuse of the breeds by that disgrace of an organization called the American Kennel Club... but I'll stay off that high horse for now). I think however that we need to temper our desire to protect the animal with the need to control them. In areas where the wolf population is healthy, efforts to limit their impact are not an evil thing to contemplate. I'd prefer to see catch and relocate programs as opposed to destruction, but many wolves simply don't allow themselves to be relocated, returning time and again to their origonal range (an amazing feat). In those cases more drastic actions need to be taken... especially if the wolves in question have shown a predisposition to approach inhabited land. These are animals who usually do poorly in captivity, so that's not usually an option. I don't think ranchers should be able to shoot them out of hand... but there needs to be methods for dealing with wolves that get too comfortable around humans and domestic livestock.

I've got pet rats, and had a pet snake once... the rats are great pets, affectionate and intelligent... non-favorite indeed. [img]smile.gif[/img] (the snake... well he just ate and slept... snakes don't make great pets even though I think they're beautiful animals)

[ 10-18-2002, 03:37 PM: Message edited by: Thoran ]

10-18-2002, 03:33 PM	#10
Thoran Galvatron Join Date: January 10, 2002 Location: Upstate NY Age: 56 Posts: 2,109	We've got some extreme positions on this issue so far... I think this is going to be an interesting "debate" [img]smile.gif[/img] . Wolves are indeed Intelligent creatures, but they live by rules that we in our comfortable suburban lives have all but forgotten. Natural law is very often brutal and ugly, but it is also logical. The apparently pointless destruction of livestock (apparently illogical behavior to kill so much that there's no hope of ever eating it all) might be a misfiring of some natural behavior. In the wild the only time a wolf (or dingo... which do the same thing) would get the opportunity to kill LOTS of something at once would be in a severe overpopulation situation, in which case the wolf behavior would be akin to increasing the hunting limit to try to bring a population down to safe levels (just a theory on my part there). I think a lot of our love for wolves comes from the fact that dogs have been our companions for an amazingly long time, and both humans and canines have benefited greatly from the association (except for the abuse of the breeds by that disgrace of an organization called the American Kennel Club... but I'll stay off that high horse for now). I think however that we need to temper our desire to protect the animal with the need to control them. In areas where the wolf population is healthy, efforts to limit their impact are not an evil thing to contemplate. I'd prefer to see catch and relocate programs as opposed to destruction, but many wolves simply don't allow themselves to be relocated, returning time and again to their origonal range (an amazing feat). In those cases more drastic actions need to be taken... especially if the wolves in question have shown a predisposition to approach inhabited land. These are animals who usually do poorly in captivity, so that's not usually an option. I don't think ranchers should be able to shoot them out of hand... but there needs to be methods for dealing with wolves that get too comfortable around humans and domestic livestock. I've got pet rats, and had a pet snake once... the rats are great pets, affectionate and intelligent... non-favorite indeed. [img]smile.gif[/img] (the snake... well he just ate and slept... snakes don't make great pets even though I think they're beautiful animals) [ 10-18-2002, 03:37 PM: Message edited by: Thoran ]