A lot of people missed the original post about what happened at Seacrest Wolf Preserve so we are sharing their story here. What happened to them was catastrophic to begin with but the actions of Florida Fish and Game made it a tragedy. We have posted a link you can use to donate to help them with repairs. Here is what happened in their own words: Dear Facebook friends and family, I am sure you have heard of the catastrophic flood event that has devastated Seacrest and traumatized the wolves. It was the rushing flood water that swept through the center of the entire 15 acres of enclosures taking out dams, ripping down interior fences and gathering debris and gaining momentum as it went. By the time it reached the south end of the preserve where Chaco and the British Columbian wolves lived it was huge! It hit the back fence with colossal veracity and blew it out as if it were nothing. Chaco was so traumatized that he fled into the woods for safety. The Washington County Sheriff’s office called early Thursday morning to tell us he was spotted approximately 4 miles from the preserve. Local individuals offered to help Cynthia track Chaco while Wayne and others stayed back to address the damage. Thursday afternoon the trackers found Chaco in a swamp and she went in and called to him and he came to her. He was extremely hungry and she fed him raw meat with some oral tranquilizer hoping to be able to crate him and bring him home. She did not have access to a dart gun and the oral tranquilizers were not effective enough to catch him. Seacrest Wolf Preserve is required by law to notify Fish and Game when they have an emergency which they rarely have. Fish and Game was notified and they arrived with a dart gun on Friday morning in the wooded area where he was last seen. The effort to track and sedate Chaco continued and Fish and Game was told by Cynthia Watkins and Seacrest Wolf Preserve NOT TO SHOOT HIM. It was explained to Fish and Game that Chaco a very valuable wolf and was an extremely rare specimen of the British Columbian wolf, or Canius Lupus Columbianus and that he was social and absolutely not a threat to any humans or their pets. It was explained that he was very treasured and valuable and deserved to be captured humanly and brought back home to the wolf preserve. Saturday morning early Fish and Game called to inform Seacrest that he was spotted at the county yard early that morning. Cynthia went immediately with tranquilizers and raw meat and tracked him around that facility following his foot prints and howling to him. There was no response from Chaco as they did not know at the time that he had already left that area and headed north. Saturday evening Chaco was spotted crossing private property by individuals who tried desperately to contact Cynthia and Wayne at Seacrest Wolf Preserve as they did not have their contact information. They called Washington County Sheriff’s department and Fish and Game and asked for our address and location and were told by both agencies that they did not have the Seacrest contact information which was a lie. In the meantime, Seacrest knew nothing about the change in direction of Chaco’s travel and were not informed by either agency. Sunday Seacrest continued to search and track Chaco but saw no signs because they had not been informed and they were looking in the wrong area. Monday morning Cynthia and Wayne were instructed by Fish and Game to go back to the preserve, “lay low” because Chaco had been tracked coming back onto the preserve property which was another lie. They were told to set up “bait stations” of raw meat around the enclosure areas and that Fish and Game would come early Tuesday morning with humane leg snares borrowed from the Red Wolf Recovery program on St. Vincent Island, FL and would be able to finally capture him. Seacrest worked hard into the afternoon following Fish and Games instructions with high hopes and excitement that Seacrest would soon have Chaco back. All the while Fish and Game and others knew Chaco had gone North way away from the wolf preserve into the edge of town. NO AGENCY CALLED TO INFORM SEACREST OF THIS CRITICAL INFORMATION THAT COULD HAVE EMPOWERED THOSE OF US CHACO KNEW, AND HE WAS FAMILIAR WITH, TO GO TO HIS AID AND BE A POSITIVE PART IN HIS HUMANE CAPTURE. More tragically, local individuals who were experienced with wild captive species and had the knowledge and ability to help capture Chaco humanly were refused information on where they had cornered him. Seacrest was totally unaware that Chaco was some 17 miles away cornered by Fish and Game and The Washington County Sheriff’s department, and about to be murdered. During the days prior to his murder various Fish and Game individuals made comments “let’s go ahead and shoot him on sight and move onto other things”. Numerous Fish and Game trucks were prowling the Washington county roads with their drivers carrying their guns ready to shoot Chaco, stopping occasionally to sit on top of their trucks to drink coffee and to crack jokes. The sickening feeling was that they were just waiting for an excuse that would bring forth the order to murder Chaco’s. Their game plan worked. While the people who loved and treasured Chaco and had desperately had been looking for him were told to “go home” which took them in the opposite direction and away from his actual location. That empowered Fish and Game to allow Chaco to go far enough away from the wolf preserve where they could find an excuse to shoot him. It is said that Chaco was near a School in Chipley but it was in the evening and the school was closed. Even if Chaco had been a threat WHICH HE WAS NOT there was no one there relative to students and there was time for the wolf preserve to be summoned so they could be a positive humane part of his capture and people was familiar with could be there with him. Seacrest would like to know who the power person was calling these shots. Stan Kirkland has made the statement that the person who gave the order to murder Chaco was on sight and obviously part of the group who had been tracking him all week. The order to murder Chaco did not from an office off site but from one of the game officials present whose name they refuse to release. Around 8 or 9 PM Monday evening Seacrest and its volunteers were capturing another Gray wolf, Forrest the Kissing wolf and were working to crate him where he was contained INSIDE of the habitat area to return him to his habitat. At around 11 PM three trucks were spotted turning into the wolf preserve driving slowly one behind the other. It was Fish and Game returning the body of this magnificent beautiful rare specimen Chaco. We were totally shocked and devastated as we had been planning for his safe capture the next morning because we were told he was on our property. Fish and Game were very nonchalant and when asked the officers name that actually shot Chaco suddenly they all had amnesia and could not remember who it was. No issues were raised with Fish and Game at that point by Seacrest because we were focused on safely returning Forrest the Kissing wolf to his enclosure. Seacrest requested the documentation of the report that Fish and Game must write documenting this event. We were told that it would be 2-3 days before the report would be finished but were given a case number which is Case # FWNW140FF4545. This tragedy of the killing of Chaco is totally unjustified and unconscionable and could have been prevented if the proper agencies had worked with integrity and humane goals with the Seacrest owners. The statement that Mr. Kirkland rushed to the news media was structured of course to make them look completely innocent. First of all Mr. Kirkland saying that you tried to capture the animal with no luck was because no effort was made by Fish and Game to implement humane measures of capture for him. It is strange that you people have no trouble repeatedly capturing large bears that weigh hundreds of pounds, blowing up safety cushions for them to land on when they are darted and relocating them humanly to safe habitats but yet you couldn’t humanly capture an exhausted 80 pound wolf and return him safely to Seacrest Wolf Preserve? Doesn’t that make you and your agency look a little incompetent Mr. Kirkland? Or perhaps it was because your men had another agenda. Maybe Mr. Kirkland instead of releasing white washed statements to the news media that makes Seacrest Wolf Preserve look incompetent and unprofessional ie: your quote “FWC officers were returning the carcass to the owners when they were flagged down by the resident saying that a wolf was loose and trying to get back in the preserve.” “This was another animal that the preserve owners didn’t know was loose” which is totally untrue. First of all, local residents running up and down the roads in their pickup trucks butting in uninvited and trying to make themselves look important, passing twisted information to game officials only complicates and confuses the truth. The truth is Seacrest Wolf Preserve knew Forrest the Kissing wolf, who we thought the first day had been killed in the flood, was alive and on property and crossed the road for a few minutes as we tracked him coming right back on property where he was being contained safely and in the process of being returned to his habitat. Again, Mr. Kirkland instead of constructing your white washed news releases for the news media you should turn your concern to your own agency that is riddled with incompetency and inhumane cruel practices that are acted out daily by Fish and Game officers on innocent wild species some of which are endangered. Perhaps you need to check out websites such as ecowatch/2013/12/03/wildlife-services-kills-millions-animals-no-accountability/ we are including the following quotes from this site which after this incident, we totally and thoroughly agree with. “Wildlife Services is an out-of-control, rogue agency that shoots, snares and poisons more than a million native animals every year, many unintentionally—including at least 13 endangered species,” said Amy Atwood, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity and the primary author of the petition. “Despite calls for reform by members of Congress, scientists and the public, Wildlife Services is still operating without the kind of legally binding regulations that ensure transparency and accountability to the taxpaying American public, creating a free-for-all that should have been ended decades ago.” “For far too long Wildlife Services has run roughshod over America’s wildlife,” said Camilla Fox, founder and executive director of Project Coyote. “We call on the USDA to clean house and bring Wildlife Services into the modern era of predator conservation and stewardship by adopting rules that justify their actions and that allow for public input and the integration of ethics, economics and science “Wildlife Services has long ignored sound science in establishing its priorities, instead taking its cues from ranchers and other ‘cooperators,’” noted Carson Barylak, federal policy advisor at the Animal Welfare Institute. “The influence of these private interests has taken precedence over the ecological principles that should be guiding the agency’s decisions, and wildlife is suffering as a result.” “Wildlife Services has contributed to the endangerment of several species, such as wolves and grizzly bears, that play pivotal roles in the food chain and have been the subject of extensive recovery efforts,” said Atwood. “The agency is a major threat to North American wildlife and must be reined in and held accountable.” Wildlife Services employees routinely engage in unlawful or inhumane activities, refusing to fire or discipline agency employees who are known to break the law or cause animal suffering. The agency is also notoriously secretive, shielding most of its activities from scrutiny, and routinely covering up a substantial portion of its animal killings. Seacrest Wolf Preserve, Inc. is the largest wolf preserve in the Southeastern part of the United States and is operated with the greatest integrity and professionalism. Seacrest Wolf Preserve and Cynthia and Wayne Watkins have always been respectful to Fish and Game officials and have worked closely with the state office in Tallahassee in past years even conducting a valuable training workshop at the wolf preserve for Fish and Game officials relative to wolves and wolf dogs. Chaco did not escape because of sloven irresponsibility, carelessness or neglect. Chaco escaped because of the catastrophic flood that was not his fault nor the fault of Seacrest Wolf Preserve, Inc. He deserved to be captured humanly and with love and respect but instead he was murdered because of the ignorant Little Red Riding Hood mentality of Fish and Game officers. Chaco was never a threat to any human or their pets and Fish and Game knew this. The murder of this innocent animal is inexcusable and should not be ignored and Fish and Game officials should be held accountable and forced to face the truth of the cruel act that they perpetrated on this valuable animal. If individuals wish to voice their opinion of this tragedy you may contact Fish and Game in Panama City, FL 850-265-3676 or the office in Tallahassee, FL 850-487-0554 or their website myfwc/contact/fwc-staff/regional-offices/ with case # FWNW140FF4545. HELP US FIGHT THE FIGHT JOIN OUR PROTEST!!
Posted on: Thu, 08 May 2014 17:04:07 +0000
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