By Heather Willard | Fox 31 News
Some of Colorado’s livestock producers have renewed their plea to Colorado Parks and Wildlife: Kill the wolves in Grand and Jackson counties that have killed ranchers’ cattle.
Several groups wrote letters this week to CPW officials and Gov. Jared Polis asking that the known wolves depredating Colorado ranches be lethally removed. Depredations occur when a predator “plunders” or preys upon a farmer’s crop. In Grand and Jackson counties, wolves were depredating sheep and cattle.
Ranchers first asked for the wolves to be lethally removed in April. There were six depredation events recorded by CPW in April alone, involving four calves and four cattle. Two claims were received, and one was paid out for $1,514 for one calf killed by the reintroduced wolves. The funding provides farmers with the “fair market value” of their crops when they are destroyed by a state-managed initiative.