Prisoners to the wolf: Catron County reaches breaking point

Catron County is scheduled to hold a special meeting at 10 a.m. on April 3 to consider a resolution to declare an emergency due to the extreme continual injury and damage caused by the Mexican Grey Wolves.

In a press release from March 28, the county claims that Mexican wolves have been seen sporadically near schools and developed areas, and pets have been snatched from front yards.

“We live like prisoners to the wolf,” Catron County Commissioner Audrey McQueen said. “I want the people who don’t have to live with them to really understand how horrible they are when they’re not managed properly.”

The county claims that Wildlife Services’ efforts to haze the wolves and move them away from residential areas and livestock have not been effective. Range riders and other non-lethal means to chase wolves away have had no visible effect.

McQueen said Charlie’s Supply, a store located in Reserve about a quarter mile from the Reserve school, showed her their trail camera that caught wolves about 100 yards from their shop on video.

“The Sheriff came out, U.S. Fish and Wildlife came out. They went driving around. They even saw a wolf jump out. The sheriff said, ‘Look, there’s one of your wolves right there.’ They never did a thing. Fish and Wildlife is very irresponsible,” McQueen said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFW) released a statement in response to Catron County’s press release that said they are committed to recovering the endangered Mexican wolf in a way that minimizes wolf-livestock conflict and reduces economic impacts to livestock producers.

“Our goal is to provide livestock producers with the most up-to-date information, work with them to implement solutions to meet our shared goals, and remain transparent as we move forward with recovery of the Mexican wolf in a working landscape. We encourage anyone with questions or concerns to reach out to us,” said the statement.

McQueen believes USFW fears being sued for attempting to move the wolves. Regardless, she said the wolves must go before someone gets hurt or killed.

The Catron County press release states that the wolves in Catron show little fear of humans.

“This is an immediate health and safety hazard to individuals and property. Please be aware of your surroundings when outdoors at all times. Maintain constant supervision of children and pets. Alert our elderly citizens to take appropriate precautions,” the release said.

Greta Anderson, Deputy Director of the Western Watersheds Project and supporter of the wolves, said she believes Catron County’s press release seems unnecessarily alarmist. Although she has seen and heard signs of wolf activity while camping in Catron County, she has never encountered a wolf.

“Catron County residents would be better served by the commission providing information about what to do when they see wolves: Remain calm. Raise your arms and look big. Make loud noises. Back away slowly while maintaining eye contact, contain your pets, especially overnight. Practice good animal husbandry. Call Fish and Wildlife to report any encounters,” Anderson said.

According to Anderson, Wolves generally avoid people, and there are no documented cases of Mexican wolves ever attacking humans.

McQueen said the county had a meeting with USFW last December about their concerns.

“We begged them to move those wolves out of town. And their answer was, that they’ll move on their own,” McQueen said. “They’ve been seen on school grounds. Why do our kids have to go to school and fear like that with these animals?”

McQueen said she doesn’t believe USFW have the capacity to help them.

“That’s why filing for the state of emergency and asking for assistance, whether it’s through FEMA or help from the DFA to send money so that we can put people on the ground to protect our citizens and our livestock,” McQueen said.

A couple of weeks ago, Murdock County, California, declared a state of emergency due to concerns of public safety after losing six head of cattle and one sheep from wolf depredations.

“They said they were in a state of emergency because of six depredations. And I’m like, six depredations is nothing compared to what we get and it passed unanimously in California,” McQueen said. “There’s 43 packs that are named packs in Catron county, so we have about 10 times the amount of probably anyone.”

According to USFW 2024, there were 100 depredations (down from 117 in 2023). The rate of depredations (number of depredations per 100 Mexican wolves) continued to decrease in 2024, marking five years of steady decline.

Hitting too close to home

McQueen also serves as president of the County Livestock Loss Authority (CLLA), which was formed in 2022 between three counties to assist ranchers who lose livestock to wolves.

During a CLLA meeting on March 2, McQueen announced that she just received a message from her ranch hand that a mother cow giving birth was found killed.

“I was able to step out of the meeting to call them, and the ranch hand’s wife was bawling, and she said she’s never seen such cruelty and anything as horrible as this kill. There was blood splattered everywhere, and then she made me start to cry. You know, so many emotions pop up,” McQueen said, “Everything races through your head, it’s traumatizing.”

She said it felt overwhelming being four hours away from home and rushing to protect her livestock, check on her kids and schedule an appointment with the investigator to confirm if it was another wolf kill.

In the last seven days, this was her fourth confirmed wolf kill, not including the loss of an additional five other cows that have gone missing without a trace.

“I’m going to get paid about $8,000 versus a $20,000 loss. And the fact that these cows, these mama cows, there’s six of them, I just lost the cow and the calf crop for next year and the next year and the next year, it’s just such a horrible loss.” McQueen said.

She said the wolf population is rapidly increasing, and with larger wolf packs come more problems. What frustrates her the most is that the wolves often kill her livestock, seemingly just for the sake of killing. This was particularly painful when they killed her daughter’s horse, Pickles.

“We’re so inundated with them. Socorro County’s gonna be next; they’re already getting a lot of trouble as it is. You give that another four or five years, and it’s gonna be awful, just like what it is here,” McQueen said.

Nico Lorenzen, a Conservation and Wildlife Associate of Wild Arizona, said the number of depredations year-to-year is actually down despite a growing population of Mexican gray wolves.

“I cannot speak to any specific cases in Catron County that may be alarming residents. That said, there are already methods by which federal and state agencies can manage wolves that are problematic toward livestock or humans and those channels should be relied upon and not circumvented,” Lorenzen said.

Lorenzen said their trail crews spent months in the county’s wilderness areas over the last two years with known packs nearby.

“Never once were myself or a member of our trail crew in danger from a wolf despite hearing them routinely at some sites,” Lorenzen said.

He believes top carnivores like the Mexican grey wolf are critical for healthy forests and ecosystem function, and their recovery should be supported.

McQueen said she is frustrated with comments made by people who don’t experience the day-to-day of the situation and don’t care that her livestock is being senselessly murdered. She said she’s had depredations happen at headquarters with the most surveillance.

“They think that that’s normal and that we should just get over it, or that we’re not taking good care of them, that we’re just letting these mass murders happen.” McQueen said. “They comment and say, ‘You need to take better care of your animals. You guys are just feeding them to the wolves.’ And I’m like, what else do you want me to do? lock them in my house?”

USFW reported that they use range riders, livestock grazing rotation, carcass removal, hazing, radio telemetry equipment, diversionary food caches, radio activated guard boxes, rubo fladry and other methods to deter potential conflict between wolves and cattle.

McQueen said she is tired of the excuses, when the livelihood and safety of her community are at risk.

“I want them to know that wolves have to be managed. They can’t just be allowed to run,” McQueen said. “It’s just with anything, when cougars come into town, Game and Fish traps them and removes them. Bears come into town and they remove them. It should be the same with the wolves.”