Colorado Parks and Wildlife/Courtesy photo
Colorado Parks and Wildlife has updated its rules to allow ranchers to kill wolves that are actively attacking “working dogs.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service late last year finalized a document, known as the 10(j) rule, that outlined when wolves could be killed in Colorado, and paved the way for the species to be reintroduced in the state.
Months after the release of 10 wolves in the state, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted unanimously Friday, July 19, to update state regulations to reflect the 10(j) rule’s language regarding “working dogs.”
Language allowing wolves caught “in the act of attacking” livestock or working dogs to be killed was included in the 10(j) rule but the words “or working dogs” were “inadvertently” left out of the state regulations, commission chair Dallas May said Friday.
The rule only applies to working dogs, like guard dogs or herding dogs used in livestock production. Pet owners can find information on how to protect their animals from wolves on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website.
Since Colorado Parks and Wildlife reintroduced wolves into the state late last year, it has not reported any instances of wolves attacking working dogs or any wolf depredations involving dogs.
But prior to reintroduction, there were two confirmed wolf depredations from wolves that had wandered into Colorado from Wyoming that involved dogs. In January 2022, a Jackson County ranch reported a dog carcass and another injured dog, both border collies, whose wounds were attributed to wolves.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife also reported that a wolf killed a dog in Jackson County in March 2023, prior to reintroduction.
Under the federal Endangered Species Act, the 10(j) rule considers wolves as “nonessential, experimental” species in Colorado, allowing for the species to be killed in certain instances, including during active attacks on livestock or working dogs. It also allows for the state to issue permits to ranchers to kill wolves responsible for chronic depredation, although no such permits have yet been issued.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife assistant director for aquatic, terrestrial and natural resources Reid DeWalt also gave a brief update on the state’s wolves Friday. Parks and Wildlife confirmed the first wolf pup from a breeding pair last month in Grand County, DeWalt said, adding that there are likely more wolf pups that have yet to be confirmed.
DeWalt said wolf killings of livestock have continued this summer but are more spread out than the string of depredations that occurred this spring in Grand County, when four cattle and two calves were confirmed to have been killed by wolves in April.
“We continue to have a few sporadic depredations but nothing like we had seen this spring,” DeWalt said. “Things have calmed down somewhat. But we do see more widespread depredations but more sporadic in nature.”
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