Chewing my tongue at the checkout and Saturday’s wolf howl

I was in the checkout line at Albertsons one afternoon last week behind a woman purchasing over $200 of groceries. Not that $200 is so unusual these days, sadly. I wasn’t paying attention when the conversation started, but I caught on when she started to describe how many “hands” she had to feed on her ranch, whether dude ranch or working ranch, I’m not sure. From there, she started to talk about how many elk her husband had taken and filled several freezers. So far, ok. Except for the questions of hunting outside of season and legal bag limits, which may or may not apply on private lands versus public. If he’s hunting and eating what he takes, I don’t have a problem. Hunting purely for trophy is another issue. Then she segued to mountain lions, proudly announcing that her husband took six (6) last year! She looked at the checker who was non-committal, and glanced toward me. I was by now biting my tongue and not looking her way. She continued in the same casual manner to announce that the ‘damn coyotes’ were wiping out all their deer – the ‘damn coyotes’ take the babies. She didn’t add that her husband is killing the coyotes, but coyotes are still considered, legally and culturally, varmints here; killing coyotes is legal, and probably encouraged in some quarters. She did say that the deer were all moving into the suburbs because there are no predators. Finally, she moved to wolves, confiding in the checker – and me, if only I would make eye contact – that there used to be a pack of wolves that lived ‘next door.’ She said that wolves had taken a dog or two and one of their horses. By now, the checker had completed scanning her order, and she had completed paying for it. And by now, I was really chewing down on my tongue.

It would not do to get into a debate with her there in the store. A sarcastic riposte or a pained rebuttal would serve no purpose. Hers is not an uncommon perspective in this region, particularly among ranchers out on the Mimbres and on the Gila and up in Catron County. Not my perspective, obviously. Or I would not have been chewing my tongue to a nub.

Shot 6 lions in one year? That seemed so excessive that I spent some time searching the NM Game and Fish’s website to see what the limit per person is, or at least what the regulations governing hunting of mountain lion are. I was amazed to find…nothing! I did find that the overall state limit for lion was raised significantly, but could find nothing specific to locations, licenses, tags, lotteries (the way hunting rights are often awarded for big game), etc. Nothing about private land versus public. Can you just shoot anything you want, anytime you want, as many as you want if it’s on your own land?

Further I was snared by the customer’s comment about “their deer.” WHOSE deer? When did deer that live on your property become YOUR deer? Such that you would (assuming so) kill coyotes that were taking the babies. From my observations – and we do indeed have predators of deer, including mountain lion, here in the suburbs – those deer that are taken are typically the sick and the lame.

And finally, on the topic of wolves. I think probably wolves had taken her dogs. And I guess possibly a horse. I couldn’t argue with her experience, or at least her belief that wolves had predated her dogs or her horse. Wolves do predate domestic animals occasionally. The reasons they do so are complex sometimes including human actions (or lack of). And the reasons that many ranchers in particular hate wolves are equally complex. It was in the Gila, I believe, that the last wolf was killed as part of the government’s concerted effort to completely extirpate the wolf from the entire country. For some ranchers, although definitely not all, the reintroduction of the wolf to THEIR lands, both private and public, is a ‘terrorist government act.’ And that’s a quote from a letter to the editor of the Silver City Sun News within the last month. In two generations, a short time in the memory of this part of the country, the federal government has gone from paying hunters to kill wolves to spending millions of dollars to reintroduce those same wolves to the same territory. Probably, calling the social and cultural and practical dynamics ‘complex’ is putting it mildly.

On Saturday, we went to 3Dog Café for coffee mid-morning just in time to catch the ‘Wolf Parade’ down Bullard St (our main street). 2011 has been declared the “Year of the Mexican Wolf” by some conservation groups. The parade was followed by a presentation at the public library by several people who are involved in a couple of national NGO’s with local affiliates focused on the plight of the Mexican Gray Wolf. “Plight” -- well described, if you hold with their perspective. Across Arizona and New Mexico, the number of Mexican Gray wolves currently in the wild have dropped under 40. Over 30 wolves in the several extant packs have been killed illegally. Over 30 wolves. Some of those, tracked by their government-owned radio collars in order to eliminate them. Not all wolf kills are illegal. Landowners are allowed incidental take. People, whether ranchers, hunters, or hikers are allowed to kill wolves if they are threatening human life – but not your dog! But there are those who believe the only good wolf is a dead wolf and follow the 3 S’s philosophy as it relates to endangered species: Shoot, Shovel and Shut-up!

Btw, I have to add that one of the NGO’s sponsoring Saturday’s events was a group called the Great Old Broads for Wilderness. This group was started by some older women, retired and with a love for the environment. It’s a national group, I gather, and is starting a chapter here in Silver City. Gotta love ‘em, even if only for the name!

Also btw, a ‘wolf howl’ is actually the name given to the act of going out into the wilds and literally howling like a wolf in an attempt to attract the local wolves to howl in return. This is done by biologists and environmental educators for visitors to various National Forests, National Refuges and National Parks in wolf country as a way of educating people to the wonder of the natural order.

Interesting juxtaposition, isn’t it, of opinions, attitudes, cultures. Within one week, first to encounter an individual obviously proud of the elimination of 3 keystone predator species (lion, wolf, coyote) and then to watch community members walking down mainstreet, equally proud to be wearing wolf-masks in celebration of (one of) the same keystone predators. Interesting—the community we’ve chosen.