Catron County could declare state of emergency over Mexican grey wolf population
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Catron County said there has been an increase in Mexican wolf activity. They're worried with the amount of sightings across the county and reports of livestock being killed. 'Parents don't even let their kids go out to play anymore without supervision. You can't even let your dogs out of the house to just roam free,' said Commissioner McQueen.
McQueen, who is also a rancher, said that just recently she lost four cows and one calf to wolves. She said the county has a high population of Mexican wolves, which the government has been working to recover since the late 1990s. Since then, McQueen said the wolf population is only growing in her area. 'In 2024, we had 125 depredations that were confirmed by wildlife services,' McQueen said.
According to the county, the wolves aren't frightened by humans and are hanging out near people, with some sightings near schools. When wolves kill livestock, officials said it costs the county a lot of money every year, even though there is a federal program meant to reimburse ranchers for livestock killed by wolves. 'Our county right now is paying 150,000 dollars a year because we've hired our own employee to go around doing depredations and try to help ranchers mitigate wolf problems. To this day, we have got zero dollars from the feds to the county,' McQueen claimed.
The Catron County Commission plans on declaring a state of emergency on Thursday, saying they fear for the safety of kids, the elderly, and pets. They hope that by doing so, they will put pressure on wildlife officials to better manage the population, as well as recoup their losses. 'We feel we are being treated unfairly and not compensated for all of our losses,' said McQueen.
The commission meeting will be held on Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Catron County Courtroom. KRQE News 13 reached out to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for comment on the state of emergency proposal, but have not heard back.
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