Wolves In Oregon Attacks And Kills Ranch Dog

A ranch owner in Keating Valley, Oregon reported the death of one of his working ranch dogs. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) confirmed that the dog had been attacked and killed by wolves. The authorities claim that the wolves had been attracted to the farm due to the unburied carcass of cows being left in the open.

The attack took place at a ranch near Middle Bridge Loop Road north of Highway 86. The wildlife department shared a depredation report which did not name the ranch owner or the ranch.

ODFW launch an investigation into the attack on Sunday, Jan. 16 following a report of the deceased animal. Brian Ratliff, the district wildlife biologist of the ODFW, informed Oregon Live that the rancher had been warned of the activity of the wolf pack identified as the Keating pack near his property.

The pack consisting of 10 wolves is regularly tracked by the wildlife department. Previously the department had tapped four of the animals, including a pup that was born in 2021. They had placed tracking collars on the animals to record their movements. The collar helped ODFW place the wolves near the ranch on Friday, Jan. 14 around 9 P.M.

Ratliff said he had called the ranch owner and asked him to scare the wolves away. The rancher had said that he would take steps to chase the wolves off his property. Two days after the warning, the ranch owner reported his 40-pound Kelpie herding dog dead. He said that he had found the body on Sunday around 150 yards from his house.

The Keating pack is noted to mostly remain around 15 miles northeast of Baker City in the fringes of the valley. The rancher’s property is the furthest that the pack has been reported to have travelled.

A post-mortem was conducted on the dog by a biologist. The report by the biologist states that the dog died on Friday and its body had been scavenged. A study of the remains proved that the animal had been killed by wolves.

Newsweek reported that the wolves had been attracted to the ranch as the property had the unburied carcasses of six cows. Ratliff stated that even heavily decomposed carcasses were enough to draw wolves as they readily scavenge on dead animals. He urged ranch owners to bury any carcass to prevent wolves from being drawn to their properties.