Don Gittleson isn’t a big letter-writer, but when a wolf wearing a Colorado Parks and Wildlife tracking collar attacked his calf on the morning of Dec. 13 he felt he had no recourse but to write to Kris Middledorf, area manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife in Steamboat Springs.
Gittleson could legally have killed the wolf if he had caught it in the act of mauling his calf. But he has said repeatedly he doesn’t want to, calling depredating wolves “CPW’s problem.” What he’s losing patience with now, he says, are regulations in the agency’s wolf management plan that delay it from dealing with a “chronically depredating” wolf.
The wolf in Gittleson’s letter – No. 2101 – has killed or injured seven of his cows, including a calf last week, six of his neighbor’s cows and four working dogs. Another wolf – No. 2103 – killed the three lambs at rancher Philip Anderson’s place. Both ranches are in North Park.
Gittleson’s letter comes days after Colorado Parks and Wildlife on Monday released five wolves in a remote corner of Grand County. The pair of Jackson County wolves are responsible for about 20 injured or killed domestic animals since 2021.
The letter asks if 20 mauled or dead animals qualify the wolves as “chronically depredating.” Under the Colorado wolf reintroduction plan, that would mean the wolves can be killed. But the plan does not clearly define what makes a wolf “chronically depredating.” The Colorado plan states wildlife officials will make that determination on a case-by-case basis.
But Gittleson says CPW’s plan makes it impossible to determine chronic depredation because it doesn’t define how many kills in a particular period qualifies as “chronic.”
Without that definition, he says, determining when to remove a wolf becomes a difficult proposition. “It just kicks the can down the road of the agency deciding when it can send one of its own managers in – the first line of defense – or call in USDA wildlife services” to dispatch the wolf. Issuing a rancher a permit to kill one is the last option, he added. And even then, he said, a rancher finding an opportune time to kill a wolf is close to impossible.
“When things come around to harass the cows, so far here, it’s been at night,” he said. “So it’s not like you just walk out the front door at high noon and there’s the wolves and you shoot them. (To see them at night), you need artificial light or thermal imaging – and those things aren’t legal to hunt with. So I asked what is legal to use to protect your animals? CPW has tools to locate the wolves with their collars. So they can go out and do it.”
The plan states conflict minimization and nonlethal measures are the priority tools to prevent wolf-livestock conflict. It also says in instances of chronic depredation, owners of livestock must file applications with CPW if they seek to “injuriously or lethally take gray wolves.” But they must wait until a depredating incident is confirmed before CPW will issue a lethal take permit.
Gittleson said he hasn’t yet received an answer to the letter he filed earlier this week, which said “if the depredating wolves aren’t dealt with soon, when these two males find mates and reproduce, they will teach their young to duplicate their current behavior, which will compound the problem significantly.”
He said he has pressed CPW for lethal removal “so that they do not continue to affect the livelihood and mental well-being of the agriculture members of this state.” And, he says he has had several offers from other hunters to kill the offending wolf.
“But some have wanted to video the whole thing and put it on Facebook and I don’t want that,” he added. “I don’t want a big production. I don’t want everyone showing how they got a wolf.”
So far, CPW shows no sign of removing the wolf that attacked Gittleson’s calf.
Instead, the agency has offered compensation for injuries it caused. CPW provides reimbursement for damages caused by gray wolves to livestock and animals used for guard/herding purposes. And the agency may provide help under its Gray Wolf Compensation and Conflict Minimization Program.
Gittleson will be eligible for veterinary compensation up to $15,000. If the cow is euthanized or dies from its injuries, he will also be compensated for its fair market value up to $15,000.
Gittleson said he plans to accept CPW’s payment for the calf’s injuries, which a veterinarian treated. They later lanced the calf’s leg due to swelling.
“She’s on antibiotics, so we’ll see,” Gittleson said nearly a week after the mauling. The attack may have “stifled” the calf, hobbling its leg similar to a human’s after a blown knee if not treated.
Anderson, a former president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, said if he were able to see a wolf “and put a scope on it,” he might kill it. “But first of all, we’d have to prove that it was depredating livestock.” The surest way to do that would be to capture it on video. But like the attacks on Gittleson’s livestock, when a wolf attacked his son’s sheep, it happened at night.
“We’d have to prove wolves got ahold of the flank or the back leg on a calf or maybe got ahold of the shank on the lamb. And what if that first time you saw it happening you got all excited and shot the wolf? You better darn well be able to find that animal it was harassing or biting. So what if I shoot it and then [the animal it was attacking] just survived, like that calf of Don’s that got attacked last week?
“You might be visiting me with an orange suit on and I wouldn’t want that to happen. I’ve got a family here and I’ve got this ranch I got to take care of. I don’t want to spend my time in Cañon City (prison) or wherever they put me.”
