Bayfield Co. hounders again throw cautions & hunting dogs to the wolves

This was the headline on a blog post of mine one week ago. You can file it under 'the more things change, the more things stay the same.' 

WI hunters keep throwing hounds to wolves in Bayfield Co.

This is the message line and detail in an email from the Wisconsin DNR Monday afternoon: 

Hunting Dogs Depredated in Bayfield and Douglas Counties 

On August 21, 2021, USDA-Wildlife Services verified that wolves killed a 3-year old female Plott trailing hound in the Town of Delta, Bayfield County.

On August 22, 2021, USDA-Wildlife Services verified that wolves killed a 7-year old male Plott trailing hound in the Town of Highland, Douglas County. 

This is what a Plott hound looks like:

This is the headline on a blog post of mine from Aug. 3, 2020:

Hunters keep releasing hounds into fatal wolf encounters; WDNR compensation available

Here are a few paragraphs from that post: 

I have followed this sad sacrifice for years; while Wisconsin is not the only state with legacy hunting traditions, it is the only state where so-called sporting lobbies had convinced the Legislature decades ago to include reimbursements to hound owners by the DNR of up to $2,500 per hound killed or injured by wolves.

As of April 20, the state has paid out more than $845,000 to hound owners requesting reimbursement for hounds killed or injured by wolves, records show.

(The DNR program also compensates livestock and pet owners for similar losses.)

Media have noted that state reimbursements are made to hound owners who are repeat payment collectors - or scofflaws, and to owners who released their hounds into known wolf activity areas mapped out and posted online by the DNR.

Several of 12 hounds injured or killed this summer in recent encounters with wolves were Plott hounds, perhaps like this one, DNR records show.

These are the recent hound-wolf encounters listed by the DNR: 

This is the headline and some text from a blog post of mine from September 2, 2016: 

28th hound killed in '16 WI bear hunt 'training' by wolves

On Aug. 31 - - the last day of the state's legal, off-leash bear hound 'training' period - - the Department of Natural Resources said by email today that the year's 28th bear hound was killed by wolves in Wisconsin [and] the 25th bear hound killed just this month by wolves in Wisconsin.