Disir
Platinum Member
- Sep 30, 2011
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Hardy is a sweet woman, with long, brown hair and eyes as green as a wolf ’s. A tattooed vine wraps around her left wrist. She is, she confesses, an animal lover. Hardy works as an EMT, and neighbors and family bring her injured jackrabbits and squirrels that she nurses and then releases back into the woodlands (except for one squirrel her kids have kept as a house pet). Her juniper-studded lot is like a mini-menagerie: she has two goats, two riding horses, one miniature horse, and seven dogs, plus a small flock of chickens and turkeys. The morning we met, a couple of cats were slinking about. “I love all the wild animals,” she said. “I just don’t like the ones that they put here, that they raise by hand and then dump on us.”
The wolves, she said, are more vicious than other predators. “They kill things—it’s a thrill kill. It’s more of a game to them. I’ve seen five calves down, and only one is eaten. My chickens and turkeys, they would kill them but then only take one bite out of them.”
There’s something wrong with the wolves that have been reintroduced to the Gila, Hardy says. “They are not acting like they are supposed to. They don’t have the normal behaviors. Everything is scared but the wolf. I’ve been hiking and have seen mountain lions—they don’t want to get aggressive with you. A wolf doesn’t have that sense. They half want to play with you and half want to eat you.”
She paused, then said, “Everyone around here is so afraid, because they know what will happen if they shoot one. They know they will go to jail and pay fines out the ying-yang.
“You know, everyone’s terrified.”
Can Wolves Bring Back Wilderness? [Excerpt]
This is an excerpt and it is lengthy. I got the feeling that the author was somewhat dismissive of the concerns.
The wolves, she said, are more vicious than other predators. “They kill things—it’s a thrill kill. It’s more of a game to them. I’ve seen five calves down, and only one is eaten. My chickens and turkeys, they would kill them but then only take one bite out of them.”
There’s something wrong with the wolves that have been reintroduced to the Gila, Hardy says. “They are not acting like they are supposed to. They don’t have the normal behaviors. Everything is scared but the wolf. I’ve been hiking and have seen mountain lions—they don’t want to get aggressive with you. A wolf doesn’t have that sense. They half want to play with you and half want to eat you.”
She paused, then said, “Everyone around here is so afraid, because they know what will happen if they shoot one. They know they will go to jail and pay fines out the ying-yang.
“You know, everyone’s terrified.”
Can Wolves Bring Back Wilderness? [Excerpt]
This is an excerpt and it is lengthy. I got the feeling that the author was somewhat dismissive of the concerns.
