Minnesota Man has close run-in with gray wolf (and they killed the wolf! :-( )

Why didn't they use a tranquilizer gun??? :cry: :grr:

http://www.wral.com/news/strange/story/1400380/

THIEF RIVER FALLS, Minn. — Mike Olson had been working under his dad's deck for about 20 minutes when he realized he wasn't alone. "I cocked my head back, and I saw those two eyes looking at me," Olson said of the Monday encounter. "I got out real fast."


<snip>
Olson and his dad, Erling, called the police, who responded expecting to find a large, wolf-like dog beneath the deck.

"They put their head under the deck, and sure enough, it was a wolf," said Craig Mattson, deputy chief for the Thief River Falls Police Department.

Police and the city's animal control officer were unable to put a noose around the wolf's neck and capture it alive, Mattson said. He said the animal had been growling and appeared to have mange, a parasitic infestation of the skin. So, a section of planking was removed and an officer shot the 104-pound male wolf, Mattson said.

than some mangy wolf.

:eyes:

I hate people sometimes.

Good plan. :mad:

:grr:

I can't imagine how you'd treat mange in an animal that isn't tame, since topical treatments usually need to be repeatedly applied, and you're not doing the species any favor by letting a mangy anything go infect others.

For a wild wolf to be going that close to humans indicates that he was probably very sick and near death anyhow. Normally they are very wary of humans and will avoid developed areas. The alternative explanation would be that he was a stray or feral former pet and that's why he was not afraid of humans, but the growling means that's really not a safe way to handle that situation.

I have zero faith in mankind.

That was cruel and vindictive

sort of a nice way to sum up our recent human history.