A wolf pack near the Canadian border has been spared the threat of state-sanctioned killing as Washington officials determined that lethal removal wasn't warranted in response to a series of attacks on cattle.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced late Thursday that Director Kelly Susewind declined to authorize killing wolves from the Leadpoint pack in Stevens County.
The pack had been deemed responsible for killing two calves and injuring another over the span of about a month.
One of the wolves was killed after reportedly chasing cattle. The wolf's death, which is under investigation, factored into the decision to decline lethal removal.
Instead, the agency plans to evaluate the pack's behavior and see if it changes with the loss of the female wolf.
The news comes a day after WDFW approved killing one wolf from the Dominion pack near Colville.
It's the second time this summer that the agency has rejected killing a wolf after cattle kills. In mid-July, Susewind declined lethal removal for a pack in Asotin County.
A person also killed a wolf that was chasing cattle in that case. WDFW investigated the killing and found that it was "a lawful act in the defense of property."
The Leadpoint pack occupies a territory in far northern Stevens County, between the Columbia and Pend Oreille rivers. WDFW's annual wolf count estimated the pack consisted of at least seven adult wolves and an unknown number of pups.
On June 28, WDFW investigated an injured calf in the pack's territory and found that a wolf was responsible. The calf later died.
Last week, the agency confirmed that wolves had killed another calf in the area. A day later, the female wolf was killed.
On Sunday, WDFW investigated two more calf injuries in the same pasture as the previous attacks. One was determined to be attacked by a wolf, and one was not.
Washington's wolf-livestock interaction protocol requires that livestock producers use at least two nonlethal deterrents to keep the predators from attacking livestock before the state can consider killing a wolf.
WDFW said in its news release Thursday that producers in the area used more than two deterrents, including range riding, removing injured cattle from the range, carcass sanitation and thinning trees to reduce wolves' hiding cover.
The agency said the killing of the yearling female wolf, which happened on July 26, could disrupt the pack's pattern of preying on cattle.
WDFW staff recommended to the director that the agency enter an "evaluation period" to see if the wolves' behavior changes, and Susewind agreed with them.
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