MYTH: Wolves kill lots of cattle, lead to lower birth rates, and are causing cattle ranchers to go out of business. FACT: Wolves are responsible for less than two tenths of a percent (.2%) of cattle depredations. 94% of losses are due to non-predator related causes, such as respiratory disease, digestive problems, weather, calving problems, etc. To be specific, according to the USDA there were 3,992,900 cattle deaths reported in 2010. A whopping 3,773,000 were not due to predators at all. In fact, only 219,900 were due to predators. Of those losses attributed to predators, wolves came in at second to last at 8,100. Furthermore, these losses are self-reported by ranchers, and most studies show that ranchers typically attribute any unknown causes to predators, which increases the number of losses. Of special note, even dogs, which are listed as cattle predators, killed almost three times as many cows as wolves did, at 21,800. Source: “Cattle Death Loss,” a report by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (see chart on pg. 5) predatordefense.org/wolf_myths.htm
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 02:27:22 +0000
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