Gotta love these predator debates where there is no right answer, but here is my opinion.

Predator prey relationship, when prey numbers are high predator numbers rise at an alarming rate. It has been proven that when predators have an abundance of food that they breed more often and have larger litters.

When prey numbers start to decrease, like any good parent those wolves are not willing to let the pups starve, hence forth they start preying on domestic stock.

Now most of the ranchers that I know or have worked for are willing to accept a certian number of deaths of their stock while its on open range but not on their own property. (are any of you willing to let someone that you dont know walk into your house and eat from your refrigerator?)

I live in Oregon so there arent that many wolves here yet, but they are coming. Right now we are faced with declining deer and elk herds with the advent of not being able to hunt cougars with dogs. Statistically one cougar kills a deer a week, thats 52 deer a year how many deer does it take to feed a pack of 12 to 15 wolves?

In the latest outdoor life magazine it said that their are 1.5 million deer/vehicle accidents a year with 150 deaths resulting from these collisions, at a cost of 1.1 billion in damages. Now I am going to assume that most of these are whitetails so it sounds like there is more of a need for wolves in the east than the west.

Anti's love predators because when hunters are no longer a viable option for manageing game then you wont need your guns anymore.

Now dont go thinking i want all predators gone i just believe that they should be managed by science not no nothing bleeding hearts at the voting booth.

Food for thought
Rogue