Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Dec. 12: Memories of wolf attacks

Dec. 12: Memories of wolf attacks

Today's news for the Last Frontier

Published: December 12, 2007
Last Modified: December 13, 2007 at 10:09 AM

"Canine carnage" of 30 years ago. With wolf attacks on dogs making the news these days in Anchorage and Fairbanks, a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story today looks back at the winter of 1974-75, when a "wolf pack spent the entire winter stalking the Goldstream Valley, killing dozens of dogs as residents armed with guns kept nightly vigils for the wolves."

That winter's toll, according to a musher who was around then: 165 dead dogs, 13 dead wolves.

The recent dog deaths - three have been killed in the Fairbanks area, two in the Anchorage area - have stirred talk in the Two Rivers/North Pole region of hunting the wolves or putting a bounty on them. The same debate appeared to swell in the 1970s, according to the News-Miner story. The story takes note of two petitions from back then. One, "signed by only a handful of people, requested Fish and Game use helicopters to shoot the wolves from the air. Another petition directing Fish and Game not to use aerial shooting was signed by more than 100 people."


No comments: