Washington State Completes Sharpshooter Cull of Cattle Killing Wolf Pack

Washington State completed a sharpshooter cull of a wolf pack that had been feeding on livestock grazing on public lands this week. It was reported that the owner of the cattle, Diamond M Ranch, demanded that action be taken against the wolves for attacking and killing his livestock.

The alpha male had been previous caught and fitted with a GPS tracking collar earlier this year. The department of Fish and wildlife in Washington used this collar to track the alpha and the pack after they became a problem for the local ranch. Officials originally had hoped that after the first wolf was killed in August that the pack would break its habit of killing cattle. According to the article Wolf Pack that Killed Cattle Taken out by Sharpshooters, "Ultimately, it became clear that this pack was preying on livestock as its primary food source, and that our actions had not changed that pattern," Phil Anderson, director of Washington’s Department of Fish & Wildlife, said in a statement Thursday. "The independent wolf experts we consulted agreed with our staff that removal of the pack was the only viable option."

After this action failed, the remaining six members of the pack, including the alpha male and female were exterminated this week.

Read the article from MSN here