- 9/9/2014
NR | 84 Minutes | Documentary | 2009
Are you looking to get a different perspective on wolves other than the Disney version or one that is perpetuated by the mainstream media? Now is your chance.
It tells the story of regular, law-abiding citizens powerless to halt government-protected wolves from killing their livestock and pets, stalking their children, and destroying the livability of their communities and private properties.
Undue Burden is a shocking, gritty, graphic, and real. Not a Hollywood production, Undue Burden is short on glitter, long on honesty.
Warning: This film contains images of the destruction caused by wolves. Viewer Discretion is advised.
Director: Bruce Hemming
Producer: Bruce Hemming
Stars: Ranchers and citizens of New Mexico and Arizona
Are you looking to get a different perspective on wolves other than the Disney version or one that is perpetuated by the mainstream media? Now is your chance.
It tells the story of regular, law-abiding citizens powerless to halt government-protected wolves from killing their livestock and pets, stalking their children, and destroying the livability of their communities and private properties.
Undue Burden is a shocking, gritty, graphic, and real. Not a Hollywood production, Undue Burden is short on glitter, long on honesty.
Warning: This film contains images of the destruction caused by wolves. Viewer Discretion is advised.
Director: Bruce Hemming
Producer: Bruce Hemming
Stars: Ranchers and citizens of New Mexico and Arizona
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:30I stumbled on a story so mystifying I had to record it for the public to see.
00:42The forces of evil, the arrogance of government, the coldness and uncaring of an environmental
00:51movement, children terrorized, pets ripped apart, people going out of business, how can
00:59this be happening today in America?
01:03You too can now see this journey I took.
01:07It forever changed my life and I'm sure it will change yours after viewing The Real Cost
01:14of Living with Wolves.
01:17In 2007, I visited families in New Mexico and Arizona.
01:29Here is their story.
02:29According to Dr. Vale Guss, a retired wildlife biologist from Canada, there are seven classic
02:51stages leading to an attack on people by wolves.
02:56The first stage is defined by a severe drop in native prey animals, there's a striking
03:03absence of wildlife in the landscape, no calls from trumpeter swans, no small game running
03:10through the brush, fields are vacant that once held Canadian geese and ducks, the deer
03:16and elk surviving wolf attacks have migrated to other safer habitat, and then wolves invade
03:25suburbs and farms looking for food.
03:29They just started dumping wolves out and say this is a recovery program.
03:35They have no idea what recovery looks like.
03:39They don't know what a potential support, they don't know what the wildlife support,
03:47you know, they're just dumping wolves out and hoping it works.
03:52There's no plan, they have no plan for recovery.
03:56This is kind of a haven for elk and the calving percentage on these elk run between 80 and
04:0385 percent in normal years.
04:06I've seen one herd of 125 cows leaving this country about a month ago.
04:13They went out and crossed these flats and they was headed north.
04:18And any place else you go that you don't see that the wolves aren't, you see 80 to
04:2485 percent calf crop on these cows.
04:28In the area where the Durango pack was, I counted 60 cows about two months ago and there
04:34was four calves on those cows.
04:37That was in Whiskey Canyon.
04:39My daughter went out here one day about this time and counted 500 cows within a half a
04:45mile here.
04:46You cannot find five cows right now within a half a mile of this place.
04:52These elk are leaving.
04:53I've watched them leave.
04:55They're going north and east.
05:00The second stage begins when wolves lacking food in the wild begin to approach closer
05:06to human habitat.
05:08Families are awakened at night by barking dogs and howling wolves.
05:14I don't know what caused them to come here, whether they heard our dogs at night or they
05:18just started sniffing around until they found some kind of human scent and made their way
05:22here to our house.
05:23But one night we heard howling above the hill and I think we were all still in a little
05:27bit of denial.
05:28We didn't really pay that close of attention to it even though it was pretty close.
05:32And the next day about three o'clock in the afternoon I came home from checking the mail
05:36and one of our wild calves that was in our shipping pasture had busted through two fences
05:41and got into the pen with our mules and he had been raked about the head.
05:45Eventually the male wolf left and the female lived here for four or five months basically
05:49starving to death.
05:50She followed our oldest daughter horse back for about eight miles and chewed on a little
05:55knuckle bone of some kind of critter and that was basically all she had to eat.
06:00She was so hungry she just lived behind our house.
06:03We suspect she came down and ate dog manure from our kennels.
06:08They'll come right in and attack your dogs and they're not a bit afraid of you at all.
06:17Have you lost dogs?
06:19I've lost eight dogs now.
06:22Wow.
06:24And what happens when you get in between them and the dog?
06:29Well, it's a pretty scary situation.
06:35You never know what they're going to do so you just holler and scream
06:40and try to get the wolves away from you.
06:46One evening I never let my dogs in the yard prior to the wolf times
06:53but after the wolves were introduced and especially the aspen pack showed up on the blue
06:58why I did keep them in the yard.
07:01And fortunately they were in the yard one evening when I heard a lot of noise outside
07:06and just right up against the fence was, I think it was three wolves
07:13and of course they were kind of growling and biting at each other through the fence
07:17so we obviously went out and discouraged them with a shot or two in the air.
07:25In stage three the wolves are becoming more brazen and appear in the daylight
07:30when they observe human activity at uncomfortably close ranges.
07:36They'll even walk right onto people's porches in the middle of the day.
07:41Families become fearful. Parents are particularly worried about their children
07:46many of whom are now having nightmares.
07:49Ranchers and farmers are intimidated just doing their daily chores.
07:55Aunt Barbara came and picked me up from school and took me home
08:00and the dog had a bite mark on her chest and a bite mark back on her hip
08:08and even worse than the bite marks the fear that I could see in that dog's eyes.
08:14Her attitude was complete fear any time anything would move.
08:19If another dog had come out of the weeds or a cat had moved
08:24she'd jump and her eyes would get all bugged out and scared.
08:29And she still, you'll catch her every once in a while, the fear's still there.
08:36How did that affect you?
08:39It scared me bad, really bad.
08:44I started 4-H when I was ten and I got to where I'd go ride by myself and stuff
08:51and exercise my horses.
08:53I won't do that now because I don't want to have an encounter with one of them.
08:59My wife no longer can go for a walk with the dogs.
09:03My son's so paranoid just from seeing wolves.
09:07In the winter it's pretty much a daily basis.
09:10We have wolves on our 160 acres of private land here.
09:14Within sight of the house, within sight of cars, trucks, people moving around.
09:19These wolves are always here.
09:21My son's so paranoid he won't go any farther than a quick running distance
09:25back to the barn or a house.
09:31Often we'll just be driving along and he'll just all of a sudden
09:35bring up a question about wolves.
09:37Do you think the wolves would, you know, get me if I went where?
09:40Do you think the wolves are going to get the dogs?
09:42Do you think the wolves are going to get the cats?
09:45So it's something that just kind of, you know, he thinks about a lot
09:48and he brings up just out of the blue when there hadn't been any discussion
09:51which shows just how much it is on his mind.
09:55Now stage four gets even more dangerous.
09:59People out walking their dogs are helpless as vicious packs of wolves
10:04attack and kill their beloved pets right in front of them.
10:11This is Peppy. This is a little cow dog that we had for years.
10:15And Peppy was very good at protecting the cows and helping us herd the cows.
10:22Bring a tough bull out of a thicket where you couldn't get it any other way.
10:27And besides that, Peppy provided our kids with a lot of fun.
10:33A lot of interesting life for about eight years until the wolves came in.
10:40And this is what we found one morning after the wolves had come in
10:45and introduced themselves to Peppy.
10:52Children witnessed brutal killings right in their own front yards.
11:03Here's a letter I received from the reserve public schools.
11:08They know about these seven stages of attacks.
11:11Their children have been stalked, cornered, and even surrounded by these vicious wolves.
11:18Nobody's helping them out.
11:20They are not allowed to step foot off of this.
11:23And if I'm over here, they can't even go to this side of the door
11:26because I'm scared to death they're going to get eaten.
11:28And they see a dog, anything that resembles a wolf, they will run to the door.
11:35I mean, a coyote was right over here, and my kids were screaming and didn't sleep the whole night.
11:40And they were inside.
11:42My four-year-old checked every door in the house like five times to make sure they were locked,
11:46checked the windows.
11:47She thinks they can come through the windows to eat her.
11:49When I raised Mexican gray wolves, this is how pro-wolf I was,
11:53they taught us about how they are attracted to the sound of anybody under the age of 10.
12:00They won't even let in the wolf exhibits.
12:02They're attracted to the sound of a child, whether it be crying, happiness, you know, playing.
12:09That attracts them.
12:10It sounds like a wounded animal.
12:12And they want to come to children.
12:14We feel like we have to protect the little kids.
12:18At times, there's a lot of difference in the older ones.
12:25Always, if you hear something, you look, and then you check where all the kids are
12:31and make sure they're around and not off by themselves.
12:37We used to go play down by the creek and in the trees and stuff.
12:42Now we don't do that because that's just asking for more trouble.
12:48So has there been wolves on this property at the school?
12:52There was when the Aspen Pack was in here.
12:56One of the parents came to pick up a couple of my classmates, and there was wolves.
13:02Went across the driveway and up the hill right here, 50 yards from the school.
13:09They came from this side of the driveway right here at the school and went across, away.
13:16So they had been right here.
13:19So that makes everybody a little jumpy when you go outside.
13:23So the school took it upon themselves for the health and safety of the children
13:27to build a wolf-proof school bus housing.
13:31They desperately need your help, America.
13:35Wolves are trying to pay for these out of their own pocket and donations.
13:40Please contact them and send what you can
13:43because American kids are endangered from vicious wolves.
13:50Wolves are becoming more aggressive,
13:53baring their huge fangs, growling and barking from as close as 20 feet away.
13:59They are clearly establishing their territory.
14:03Went out for my morning walk, came back, poured a cup of coffee,
14:08and the time it took me to go in the wall tent and walk back out to the fire to put sugar in my coffee,
14:16there the whole pack was.
14:17There were seven animals in my camp, adults and very young pups.
14:24The alpha male was about 15 feet away from my campfire.
14:28The rest were about 5 to 8 feet behind him.
14:32My shotgun sat on a four-wheeler off to my left and a little bit closer to the wall tent.
14:40He and I looked at each other, and there was a definite challenge in his eyes.
14:44I had four rounds in my shotgun.
14:47I fired over their heads in all four directions trying to get them to leave.
14:52The alpha female was barking and growling at me at that point in time.
14:56She was about 20, 25 feet away.
14:59She would not back off even though her kids were moving to the left from the sound of the shots.
15:05She wanted to go in front of me.
15:07I had them pretty well scattered.
15:11I had to go back into my tent to get some more rounds.
15:16When I came back out, she had gone over and gotten her pups,
15:19and they were coming back to the alpha male before they went up over a hill,
15:23a little ridge maybe a quarter mile away from camp.
15:27I was a little pissed off at that point in time.
15:29I got on my four-wheeler. I drove around the end of the ridge, and there they all stood,
15:34not running away from the experience they just had,
15:37but they were just standing around kind of,
15:40well, what are we going to do for the rest of the day sort of attitude.
15:43If you wouldn't have had that shotgun, do you think you'd be here today?
15:48The way he was approaching me, I feel like I would definitely have been attacked.
15:53They came into that camp for a reason.
15:56Knowing that I was there, it wasn't an empty camp by any means,
16:01and the look in his eye, I knew I was in serious trouble.
16:07Stage five reveals numerous deaths of large livestock.
16:13Their tails are docked. Ears and hocks slit.
16:18Their udders, groin, and sexual organs are ravaged.
16:31Here's an example of what a wolf can do to a cow.
16:35They seem to prefer coming in and chewing them up.
16:39They'll usually eat out the back half of their udder
16:44and chew their hamstrings, usually puts them down so that they can't walk,
16:51and you have to destroy a cow that gets chewed up like that.
16:55Unfortunately, the calf doesn't have much of a chance at life
17:02because with Mama gone, that puts the end of the calf too.
17:07This mother apparently was able to defend her calf,
17:11but sort of lost herself in the process.
17:15And if they're not already dead,
17:17they'll endure hours of painful torture and have to be put down.
17:23With this little calf, and here's the mother sort of standing by
17:29wondering what to do about her baby that you can see laying there in the weeds.
17:36I'm Loretta Rabinow. This is my daughter, Jacey,
17:39and we're part of a ranching family in the Black Range.
17:44I have an extended family also ranching,
17:47and we've all been highly affected by this wolf thing.
17:54And probably the biggest impact was not this past summer, but the one before.
18:03We had a pair of wolves show up on our ranch.
18:08We didn't have any idea there was anything in the area,
18:11but it became apparent really quickly that we had a wolf problem
18:18because we started finding it.
18:20The first thing was a dead calf, a good-sized 350-pound calf.
18:25From then on, everything we found was bigger calves and mama cows.
18:30This wasn't like what we're used to dealing with,
18:32coyotes that'll gang up on the little calf.
18:35Coyotes can do some pretty nasty things too, but this was different than anything.
18:40We knew right away we had something different even before we determined it was wolves.
18:45It was like a whole different deal.
18:48So you had something unusual with the cows when you followed them?
18:52Yeah, the majority, I would say just about every mama cow,
18:59the udder had been eaten, and that's it.
19:02They might have eaten a little bit on the hind quarter, but they ate from her back and went on.
19:08In most every case, the calf was nowhere to be found.
19:12We found a few remains on some of the kills.
19:15We found a calf tag, a few bones enough to know that, yep, that was the calf,
19:21and then the tag, of course, would verify that that was her calf.
19:25But a lot of times we found nothing left.
19:27We just knew that she'd had a calf because I'd already branded that season,
19:32or done the majority of the branding.
19:34I said, hey, she had a calf on her before, and then now it's gone.
19:39So you were finding these cows, and there was, what, 900 pounds of meat still left on them?
19:44Right.
19:45And then they'd go out and kill something else fresh?
19:47They'd move on to something else, yep.
19:49That was a surprise to me.
19:52I gave them the benefit of the doubt.
19:55They really did kill just for meat.
19:57I didn't want to feed them, but they definitely were doing some.
20:02I think the term thrill killing was what our wildlife services guys called it.
20:09They said this is what we call thrill killing.
20:12There's other expressions for it too, but that's what definitely was happening.
20:18And we'd find several in just one small area where you could tell they went on a rampage just to kill.
20:23So you don't think wolves, there's not a core habitat down here big enough to support them without attacking cattle?
20:31That's what I believe.
20:33That's right.
20:34They will.
20:35They're going to go after livestock.
20:37Sometimes it takes a little longer, depending on the individual animal and the pack.
20:42But, oh, yeah, they're going to go after livestock.
20:45This pair, after they killed a calf, I believe it was, they killed a cow elk.
20:51And, you know, we thought, well, okay, maybe they'll do that.
20:54They just ate the calf out of the cow elk.
20:57They didn't eat her.
20:58They pulled the unborn calf out and ate it.
21:00There was a big hole.
21:02And then next thing you know, they went back to cattle.
21:04They went back to the livestock.
21:06Another concern that we had was we'd read in a paper or magazine or maybe hear on the radio what was being said from reporters that were talking to people who just don't have a clear picture of what's going on.
21:20I could tell they had no clue what we were actually dealing with.
21:24With this three-strike rule, they would say something about three head of cattle that had been killed when what actually would happen was if however many head of cattle were killed in a 24-hour period, that's one strike.
21:38And we know of four or five that they determined were killed in a 24-hour period, that was one strike.
21:45That wasn't five or four or five.
21:48And so we would lose five head of cattle, but that would just be one strike against the wolf.
21:53If they go on one of those rampages, there's just no telling.
21:57Is it real bloody when you come up under the scenes?
22:00Yeah.
22:01Bloody and lots of hair that had been pulled out from the cow switches.
22:05And then the ground just torn up where the mama cow would fight.
22:09You could tell she was trying to fight the wolves off to protect her calf.
22:12Just the whole scenario, like a crime scene or something.
22:15It's sad because you can see how hard they fought.
22:18All but one were very healthy cattle, especially for that time of year.
22:22They were not just laying around waiting to be eaten.
22:25They were good mama cows and did their best to fight them off, but these things are killers.
22:37Brazen wolves are now killing horses and cattle close to houses and barns.
22:43The wolves begin stalking riders.
22:48About a month ago, I was with a neighbor up on top of the mountain working cows.
22:53And our dogs disappeared and one of them came back and the other one didn't for a little while.
22:59And we called and called and she finally, we saw her coming back.
23:04And I looked behind her about 30 feet, there was brown ears sticking up out of the grass.
23:13And when I got close enough that I could, when it kind of lifted its head,
23:18the fear came across me that I knew it was a wolf.
23:22There was no question in my mind at the time.
23:25And it just kept coming, the dog just kept jogging to us and it just kept coming.
23:31My friend hollered and the wolf wouldn't turn.
23:35So I stepped off and shot in the air once and the wolf turned and ran.
23:41And we were right beside a little point there and the wolf ran around the end of the point.
23:46But we couldn't see it, so we got back on and went on with our work.
23:51And I don't think it was even five minutes later, came over that point,
23:56and all of a sudden my horse just tensed up and the dogs kind of fell back behind us
24:02and looked up there and about 30 yards away or something like that,
24:09there it stood again watching us, waiting for us to come over that point.
24:15So my friend got off and shot in the air that time and it took off.
24:20And I will still believe about ten minutes later that it was back where we couldn't see it
24:26because both of our horses tensed up again.
24:31Because our horses have been around coyotes their entire lives.
24:36They don't react.
24:38But when a wolf's around, they react.
24:43You can tell there's something there.
24:45I understand you had a real close encounter and it shook you up. What happened?
24:50It was last year during the late elk hunt.
24:54I had an elk tag and it just happened that day I was out hunting by myself.
24:59I was way off the beaten path down some canyons.
25:04I got down there, decided just to rest a little bit,
25:08took my pack off of my jacket and set my gun against the tree.
25:13Squatted looking down the canyon for a while.
25:16I was there for some time.
25:18Then I stood up and decided I'd move on.
25:21I turned to reach for my jacket and out of the corner of my eye I seen movement.
25:28I looked and it was like I couldn't believe it.
25:31It was two, it was young wolves.
25:33It was two wolves and they were just about 30 feet from me.
25:38They were stalking me just like I'd seen the dogs do.
25:42They were just there and they just kind of froze for a minute.
25:46I just thought, oh, no, wolves.
25:50I'm talking out loud. It just scared me.
25:53Now when you say young wolves, how many pounds do you think they were?
25:56They were about the size of a pretty good-sized dog.
26:00Like 60, 70 pounds?
26:02Oh, about 60 pounds.
26:05What were the thought processes that went through your head?
26:09Well, I stood there kind of dumbfounded for a minute.
26:12I thought, oh, my rifle.
26:14I reached for my rifle. I bring it up.
26:17Then I'm thinking, I can't shoot because I don't want to end up in jail.
26:23What do I do?
26:25I decided, well, I'm going to go ahead and shoot because I'm afraid for my life.
26:29You're sitting there. You don't have time to weigh the odds.
26:32I get ready to finally shoot and by then they're going through the brush and they're finally leaving.
26:37They heard me put a shell in the chamber and they did leave.
26:41So do you feel if you didn't have the gun you wouldn't be here today?
26:44Oh, yeah. My talking and my movement and stuff, they just kept coming and creeping up.
26:50I don't think that would have stopped them.
26:52If I wouldn't have stood up and turned when I did, I really think they would have just pounced on me from behind.
27:00That was so hair-raising.
27:03I love hunting. That's what I live for.
27:06I decided I'm just going home. I can't take this.
27:11I went home for the day.
27:13How many years have you been hunting in this wilderness?
27:16In this wilderness, I've been hunting for about 30 years.
27:21Has any bear or mountain lion ever shook you up like this?
27:25Never. I've never been afraid.
27:28That's why here I am, they say, a lady out there hunting by herself.
27:32I'm not afraid to go out there and find my way and do it by myself.
27:37But now it makes me a little more worried about it, I think, before I go out.
27:43They walk right up to people's houses and porches and peer into windows.
27:50Children become terrified.
27:5387% of the children found that they were feeling that the wolves were really a danger to themselves
28:03and to the people they loved and to their pets and to the cattle.
28:0780% of the children felt helpless to control or stop what was going on.
28:1380% of the children in the reintroduction area,
28:17and these are children between the ages of 3 and 11 and 12,
28:21who ordinarily slept in their own rooms,
28:24were getting up at night and going in and wanting to sleep with their parents.
28:2873% of the children would wake up at night from nightmares,
28:34screaming most of the nightmares related to what was happening with the wolves.
28:39It was certainly very, very evident that all those things I've mentioned
28:43are major symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
28:46And the big problem is that with young children,
28:50it can certainly lead to many more psychiatric difficulties
28:55or psychological difficulties as the children grow up.
28:58You don't want your kids to be fearful, but it's there.
29:02This was something that was not ordinary.
29:04They're used to the bear and lion around, coyotes getting a calf now and then.
29:10But what we experienced was not like anything else.
29:13If you have a bear kill something, you can do something about it and it's over.
29:19This was an ongoing thing.
29:21And then just the fact that the wolves were so close to our home
29:25and getting closer all the time,
29:27we ended up killing one of them just over the ridge from our house, from the ranch home.
29:33And so there was a fear there.
29:35We did everything we could to keep that.
29:40We were realistic with them, but we didn't stay there.
29:46They were fearful and some bad dreams at night and that kind of thing.
29:53My daughter was, my younger daughter, not this one,
29:57she was with us when we were going and finding the dead cattle.
30:02And we'd say, oh, that's old so-and-so because we know some of our cattle.
30:06We even called them by name.
30:09She was tough and kind of even interested in the process of it all,
30:13but it definitely affected her.
30:15When you go out there time after time, oh, there's another one.
30:18So that had to be hard on her.
30:22It was an education, but it was still tough on them.
30:26And just the fact that wolves are just a different type predator,
30:31they're not natural to me.
30:35Wolves turn their attention to people and approach closely,
30:40at first merely observing them.
30:43This is a switch from establishing territory to targeting people as prey.
30:49Wolves may make hesitant, playful attacks, ripping and tearing clothing.
30:56They withdraw when confronted.
30:59They defend kills by moving toward people growling and barking
31:03as close as 10 to 20 paces.
31:06It was the last day of school.
31:10They only had two hours of school that morning.
31:13We had been having our neighbor, I would take the kids into school,
31:16and she would pick them up at the bus stop and drop them off at the house.
31:20That morning I didn't know that she wasn't going to pick her daughter up.
31:24She was going to pick her up at school and not at the bus stop.
31:30The kids got off the bus.
31:32They didn't have a ride, and they started to walk down the hill,
31:35and they heard a car go along the highway,
31:39and they turned to make sure it wasn't going to turn down the road.
31:42When they turned around to look,
31:44there was a wolf standing in the middle of the road facing them.
31:49They got a good look at it.
31:53My oldest son, who's 14, I guess he was 13 at the time,
31:57took his sister's hand and started off.
32:02Watching the wolf started off to the quickest route home,
32:05which happened to be through the brushier area.
32:09Probably wasn't the wisest thing he's ever done,
32:11but like I said, he was 13 years old
32:13and wanted to get home as quickly as possible.
32:16He went across through, like I said, the brushier area,
32:20and he could see as they were going through
32:22that the wolf was coming alongside of them.
32:26He could see through breaks of the brush and stuff
32:28that it was still there and was still coming down.
32:31They broke through the brush and didn't look back.
32:34They ran as quick as they could into the house and called me.
32:37They were scared.
32:39We don't get any consideration for the fact that
32:43they could come right up to the bus stop again,
32:45and maybe we wouldn't have been so lucky this time.
32:48That wolf was displaying prey behavior,
32:52following them alongside like that.
32:55What would have happened if the dogs we had in our yard
32:58hadn't started barking and putting up a fuss
33:00and noticing something had changed?
33:03What if the kids were a little bit further away from home?
33:07The people just don't think about...
33:10It's great to see a wolf in a zoo.
33:12It's great to see a wolf out in the wild.
33:14But what we have here aren't wolves.
33:17They're not a wild animal.
33:19They're hand-fed.
33:21I don't see why people think that it's okay
33:25to plop their experiment right down in my family's lap
33:29and the rest of the people around here.
33:31I don't think it was fair. We never asked for it.
33:34We moved out here in order to make sure
33:37that our kids were safe to go to school.
33:40Instead, you worry about your kids getting shot
33:43or something in a big city school,
33:45but we moved out here to get away from all that
33:47and to live out here.
33:49You've got another Thomas.
33:51Maybe you should pack a gun up to the bus stop
33:54if you're that worried about him.
33:56My father-in-law said, give the kids a rifle.
33:59Here I am, living out in the country,
34:01and now I have to send a weapon to school?
34:03My kids, they should be safe coming home.
34:07Most people think that the wolf is like a dog,
34:14a friendly dog, and they're anything but that.
34:18They can be gentle under domestic handling,
34:26but I wouldn't trust a wolf for anything.
34:32They're death on livestock and wildlife,
34:35and they've really taken a toll on the livestock in this area.
34:44Not only the livestock,
34:45but they've really taken a toll on the elk also.
34:49How many head of cattle have you lost?
34:51Well, in the past seven, eight years,
34:55we lost at least 80 head of cows and calves.
35:00And how much have you been paid for?
35:03I think we probably haven't been paid,
35:10let's see, for that many head.
35:13We've been paid for about maybe eight, ten head all total.
35:19So who paid for the rest of it?
35:21Well, we just have to take the loss, and that's it.
35:25Well, how can you survive as a ranch like that?
35:28Well, it's hard.
35:31We're just, from year to year,
35:35just wondering if we're going to be here the next year.
35:39They claim they want to turn out over 100 wolves in this area,
35:45and they've got 56 collared wolves now,
35:49no telling how many uncollared wolves,
35:52and they're not counting them,
35:54and they want to turn the rest of them out right away.
36:00There's no way that a rancher can stay in this country,
36:04and a lot of people say,
36:05well, that's good, we'd just rather have it for wildlife.
36:08Well, wildlife's not going to make it either.
36:13These elk, their numbers are dwindling a lot.
36:21Take, for instance, last year, we had, a year ago last summer,
36:26all our cattle were behind the mountain,
36:28and there was a pair of wolves right behind the house here about a mile,
36:32and we weren't too concerned about them
36:34because our cattle were far enough away,
36:37and we could look after what's around the house pretty good.
36:41But anyway, this pair of wolves were in there for two weeks,
36:47and then they moved on.
36:49Never thought any more about it.
36:52Well, that next fall, when deer season rolled around,
36:56this friend of ours from Magdalena,
37:00he came deer hunting up here,
37:02and he come back and he told me, he said,
37:05I've never seen so many elk carcasses.
37:08He counted either 17, I believe 17 or 19 carcasses
37:13that he thought were killed within a two, three week period.
37:19He didn't know, but that's just an example of what they can do.
37:25The last stage, wolves attack people.
37:29The initial attacks are clumsy,
37:31as the wolves have not learned how to take down efficiently this new prey.
37:37A person's attack can often escape because of the clumsiness of the attack.
37:42A mature, courageous man may beat off or strangle an attacking wolf.
37:49However, against a wolf pack,
37:51there is evidence that even two able-bodied, armed men may be killed.
37:59Wolves are pack hunters and are so capable of a predator
38:03that they may take down black bears and even grizzly bears.
38:08Wolves may defend their kill and attack.
38:11I ran them off two different times off of my cattle,
38:14and I had this big male wolf come at me,
38:17and I was about five to six feet from him,
38:20and I was, you know, I'm a pretty big boy, 6'2", 220,
38:25and I was pretty scared for my life that I was going to have to fight this wolf,
38:29you know, hand-to-hand combat with him.
38:32I mean, what do I do against a wild animal?
38:35One of the fairy tales put out by the pro-wolf side
38:39was none of the Native Americans hunted wolves.
38:43If you check online, you will find Geronimo's autobiography.
38:50In there, he clearly states that in order for a young boy to have the privilege to smoke,
38:56he must first kill large game, wolves, and bears.
39:02That's plural, so that clearly shows that, yes, the wolves were hunted by the Native Americans.
39:09And today, the St. Carlos Apaches are being devastated by the wolves.
39:16Repeated requests to remove every wolf off the reservation
39:22is being ignored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
39:27once again breaking another treaty with the tribes.
39:33So if you were talking to the sportsmen of America,
39:37what would you say when they're totally convinced
39:40that it's helping the deer and the elk by having wolves around?
39:44Well, I think it's a big propaganda ploy as far as I'm concerned.
39:51They're teaching these kids in grade school now, they're brainwashing them,
39:56that these wolves are nice and they're nice to have out,
40:00and they're nothing but a killing machine.
40:04And I just think that the sportsmen better pay attention.
40:08They better wake up and see what's happening around them.
40:11I think that if they'll look at Idaho right now,
40:16they've been devastated with wolves, and all the outfitters are crying because there's no gain.
40:22They've really devastated the elk in that area.
40:26And you think the same thing's going to happen down there?
40:28It's going to happen here. They want to turn more wolves out.
40:31And, you know, after they eat all the livestock and the wildlife out,
40:42it's going to be, you know, they're going to have to control them.
40:45David Meck's own research on the deer in Minnesota in 1975
40:52found that the wolves completely, 100%, killed off, slaughtered,
40:59eliminated, and exterminated every last deer in this area.
41:05No hunter had access to this area. It was only the wolves.
41:11And in 2002, David Meck was still bragging about his wonderful wolves
41:17because the deer in that area had still not recovered.
41:22Hunters, I'm showing you the facts here.
41:26Michigan. U.P.
41:29The only way I could get the truth out of the Michigan DNR on their whole wolf program
41:34was to get the deer check-in reports
41:37because everything else in Michigan is just an estimate.
41:41The deer check-in reports clearly show in the western U.P. where I used to live,
41:47the deer harvest by hunters has dropped by over 50%.
41:54That is because of the wolves.
41:56I've never seen anything like it.
41:58When the wolves come in, the devastation, the just missing deer,
42:04the wiped out beaver, it was just incredible.
42:08And it's still happening today because nobody's telling you the truth.
42:13The U.S. Fish and Wildlife's job is to work for us hunters.
42:18Us hunters and fishermen are the ones paying their salaries.
42:23Instead, they side with the animal rights and the environmentalists
42:28who want to stop hunting.
42:31So what happened?
42:33Well, instead of telling the Americans the truth
42:36that wolves are vicious animals and attack and kill people,
42:40instead of telling the American people the truth
42:43that they were going to wipe out our deer and elk herd,
42:46they made up all these fairy tales, lies, and misconceptions
42:51and sold it to the American public.
42:53You, America, you, especially the hunters,
42:57it's up to you to get on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
43:01and tell them, you work for us.
43:04These wolves are nothing but devastation,
43:07and if we don't stand up to it right now and cut off their funding,
43:12these wolves will spread like locusts across the land.
43:16In each state, they'll come running in and claim they're an endangered species.
43:21Well, an endangered species, according to the definition,
43:25means they're close to an extinction.
43:28With 40,000 alone in Canada and another 11,000 wolves in Alaska,
43:36they're nowhere near extinction.
43:38This has been nothing but a scam from the beginning.
43:42It's based on stolen money and lies.
43:45So it's up to you, America.
43:47It's up to you, especially the American hunter,
43:50to stand up and say enough is enough.
43:53The federal government, you work for us.
43:56We are not your slaves.
43:58And I got all the evidence I need right here on this shoulder.
44:02According to several ranchers that I interviewed,
44:05they were denied payment for their animals lost to wolves,
44:09or it was delayed by several years.
44:13Several small ranchers can't afford to have these losses
44:18without getting paid for it.
44:21As a direct result of the reintroduction of the Mexican gray wolf,
44:25I'm now out of all my businesses.
44:29Basically, the way my business was set up,
44:32when I bought the place 15 years ago,
44:35the guest business paid my expenses,
44:40and the cattle paid my mortgage.
44:42And that's how we got by.
44:44We got a very successful guest business going.
44:47We'd have 10 people a week, about 40 weeks a year through here.
44:52It took about seven, eight years to get to that point.
44:55Since the wolves came in, over the years,
44:58my losses on my calves have been going up steadily every year.
45:03Finally, 2005 was the real clincher for our demise here
45:10when we lost over 50 calves.
45:12No compensation at all.
45:15I've never been compensated for any of my losses
45:18from Defenders of Wildlife or any other agency.
45:22So those heavy losses in 2005 caused me to be unable to pay my mortgage.
45:29As a result of that, I had to sell my guest business horses
45:32to make up the difference.
45:34It was my horses that made my guest business.
45:37Most of my clients were horse owners from the East Coast.
45:39I just couldn't replace them with some kind of junky nose-to-tail sort of horse.
45:44So without my horses, I had no more guest business.
45:47Basically, in one year, the Mexican Gray Wolf program has put me out of business.
45:54I've now sold the ranch.
45:56It was a matter of trying to sell it and get out before I had to declare bankruptcy.
46:02Didn't make a pile of money on the sale.
46:05All I did was make enough just to cover the money that I owed.
46:08After 15 years of work, I'm left with absolutely nothing.
46:12Nothing at all.
46:14We who live among the wolves had nothing to say about this introduction
46:19except that we all objected to it.
46:22And I have a survey here that I prepared,
46:26that I submitted to the members of this community,
46:29and all Arizona Blue River residents, adults, signed this.
46:35I think they always knew that
46:37this wolf is nothing but a title-clearing tool.
46:40And what do you mean by that?
46:42Well, it's like a New York landlord who wants to get tenants out of his building
46:50so he can raise the rent.
46:52And so he moves people in next door to him to make noise all night
46:57and harass these people until they just can't sleep anymore
47:04and they just give up and leave.
47:07And that's what they're doing to us.
47:12That's what they're doing to our community
47:14and many communities in New Mexico and Arizona.
47:18My husband Jack and I have been working on this wolf project,
47:24working against it, I guess you'd say, for about 20 years.
47:28In the very beginning, when they first started talking about
47:33reintroducing the Mexican gray wolf,
47:36Jack and I went to our game commission
47:41and got them to actually vote against reintroducing the Mexican gray into New Mexico.
47:49But as time has gone on and more political pressure has been applied
47:55and our commissioners have changed, that's not the case anymore.
48:01When we first started working against this project,
48:04we still had mother cows and calves
48:07and we knew that if the wolf was here, it was a matter of time before we were out of business.
48:14So that's one of the reasons that we changed to yearling operation
48:18because we thought it would be a little harder for a wolf to take down a yearling instead of a calf.
48:26But we found out that wasn't true this summer because we lost three yearlings to the wolves.
48:32They've denned right next to our private property
48:37with the knowledge of the Fish and Wildlife Service
48:41and really not much was done, it was more up to us to try to take care of it.
48:47And we know that it takes more than one wolf to take a yearling down,
48:53but for some reason they're unwilling to admit to that
48:58and they only want to give strikes to one wolf, not the whole pack, for the death of our cattle.
49:07Explain what you're talking about with this one, two, three strikes, what do you mean?
49:12It's a system that they have to grade the wolf.
49:19They've had one strike against them if they've killed something
49:24and then if they kill again, they get two strikes.
49:27If they kill again, they get three strikes and then they're supposed to be removed,
49:32which isn't always the case, but that's what the three strike system is.
49:38And we have to tag the calves the minute they hit the ground
49:42and still, even those, if we tag them and we go back and take pictures of them,
49:46we go back and sometimes we can't even find the tags of the calf ever again.
49:50The only thing we know is that the calf exists,
49:53is that we'll find the dew claws or the baby teeth still in the scat from the wolves.
49:58And even when you found that in the scat, were you paid for them calves?
50:03No.
50:04No.
50:05The only calves you're paid for is if it's a confirmed kill
50:08and it has to be confirmed by Wildlife Services
50:11and they have to have documentation sent in
50:15and that's the only time you can get them.
50:16And it has to be killed.
50:17It can't be partially eaten or bitten or damaged.
50:22So what happens when your cows or calves are partially damaged?
50:27We vaccinate them, revaccinate them and treat them
50:30and if they live, we don't get any pay for the time or the effort
50:37that we have to put in to take care of them.
50:39And a lot of times we've had to destroy the heifers
50:41because they'll eat the backsides of the heifers out
50:44and they'll eat their udders
50:47and they're not valuable enough to reproduce calves
50:51so we have to go and just destroy them.
50:54They will pay you what they call a reimbursement program
51:00but it's very minimal.
51:03It's not even market value price of the cattle or anything else.
51:12Who made up the difference in cost?
51:14We do.
51:16So how do you stay in business with that kind of loss?
51:19You work elsewhere.
51:21It's very much difficult.
51:24You do hay farming and other things
51:26and construction work to pay your bills.
51:30I talked to Congress and congressional staff people
51:33and told them about the way money had been taken
51:35from the excise taxes that go to state fish and wildlife agencies
51:38for hunting and fishing.
51:40And they called in a GAO auditor and found out
51:42that $45 to $60 million had been stolen
51:44in the two years just before that
51:46by the Fish and Wildlife Service managers.
51:49They'd used it to fund the stacking of wolves in Yellowstone
51:53and the opening of an endangered species office in California.
51:58Two things that Congress had refused to fund.
52:01Even though they had approved bringing wolves
52:03tentatively into Yellowstone, they had not funded it.
52:07But the Fish and Wildlife Service just took the money and did it anyway.
52:10And they used then probably a third of the money
52:13to give themselves bonuses in that two years
52:16to help the Fish and Wildlife Service managers.
52:19It's crazy.
52:21The wolves, the bears, they attack people
52:24and we're told that the people are in the wrong place
52:26and they didn't behave correctly.
52:28They attack a young man up in Saskatchewan recently
52:31and eat him and we're told that
52:33it wasn't him, it was a bear
52:35in November in northern Saskatchewan.
52:37We believe whatever we're told.
52:39We're told that bears never attack people
52:41even though they're following kids around bus stops now in New Mexico.
52:44And at the same time that we believe that they won't attack people
52:47and never do that,
52:49every one of you who believes that kind of stuff,
52:51if I tell you, oh my gosh, a pit bull has gotten loose down the street,
52:55you're all ready to throw the kids in the garage lock
52:57and hope the police come and kill the pit bull
52:59and pass laws that nobody should own a pit bull
53:01because they're so dangerous.
53:03Think about how stupid that is.
53:05A wild animal that's probably five times the size of a pit bull.
53:09Not that pit bulls can't be very dangerous and deadly animals
53:12and people should be responsible for them,
53:14but you believe all this nonsense about grizzly bears and wolves
53:17that are becoming a bigger and bigger problem.
53:19They're eradicating big game animals and killing pets.
53:22The ranchers let their golden retriever out to take a leak at night,
53:25their daughter's drugging it.
53:27You have to sit there and watch it get torn apart by wolves?
53:29And you're going to put them in prison if they try to do anything about it?
53:32I mean, it's crazy.
53:34You think that if you were a wolf researcher or a mammologist
53:37at some big university and wanted to get grants,
53:40you'd think you'd come out and say, those wolves are very dangerous.
53:43They're like grizzly bears.
53:44They're going to kill a lot of big game and decrease hunting and fishing,
53:47and they're going to kill a lot of livestock.
53:49They're going to make rural life very dangerous for young children and old people.
53:53They'll probably help to depopulate the rural countryside,
53:56so therefore we shouldn't have them and we should get rid of them.
53:59You think they'd have much future for grants for the kind of work that they do?
54:02Of course not.
54:04As a scientist, the wolf introduction program was set up in a very flawed manner,
54:10very unscientific, and one of the most crucial parts of this
54:14was that no methods were developed to scientifically estimate
54:19the number of wolves in the wild.
54:22They were introduced, and then it was assumed that the methods used
54:25to determine numbers that worked in other places
54:29where the wolves had been reintroduced would work here.
54:32Of course, this is a wilderness, and there are no roads,
54:35and so a lot of those methods, as well as the topography,
54:39the fauna and flora here are completely different.
54:43Here's a list of questions I prepared for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
54:49I was denied an interview until my questions were submitted.
54:55Again, they denied me an interview.
54:58In fact, they even refused to answer the questions for this film.
55:02One has to ask themselves, what are they hiding?
55:06They're hiding the truth.
55:09And since they won't answer me, America,
55:12it's up to you to demand these questions are answered.
55:17It's up to you to get a hold of your congressmen
55:21and make these bureaucrats do their job
55:24and protect the health and safety of the American children.
55:29The other thing you can do is contact every radio show that you know
55:34and ask them to have me on for an interview.
55:37We must spread the word far and wide.
55:40America, we've been set up and sold out with this whole wolf program.
55:45I've uncovered through research and old newspaper archives
55:50over a hundred Americans that have been slaughtered, killed,
55:54devoured and eaten by wolves.
55:58That's not counting the other hundred that I found that were probable wolf kills.
56:05Nor was it counting the hundreds of wolf attacks I came across.
56:10We've been lied to.
56:13This whole wolf program is a scam.
56:43© BF-WATCH TV 2021
57:13© BF-WATCH TV 2021
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