Washington to kill members of wolf pack in Stevens County

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The state of Washington plans to kill some members of the Smackout wolf pack, which has repeatedly preyed on livestock in Stevens County.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says the pack has preyed on livestock four times since September.

"The purpose of this action is to change the pack's behavior, while also meeting the state's wolf-conservation goals," Donny Martorello, WDFW's lead wolf manager, said. "That means incrementally removing wolves and assessing the results before taking any further action."

The agency says the state will kill some members of the pack and then see if that changes its behavior.

The Smackout pack is one of 20 wolf packs documented in Washington state in 2016. At that time, the pack was estimated to consist of eight wolves, but it has since produced an unknown number of pups.

Wolves were wiped out in Washington early in the last century, but begin moving back into the state from neighboring areas earlier this century. That has caused conflicts between wolves and ranchers.

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