Two wolf attacks in Shawano County just this month has some in the county concerned. A 1,000 pound cow and a much smaller dog have been killed so far this year, some people who live there are asking for additional options to control the pack.
Wolf sightings are on the rise in places like the town of Richmond and Bowler out in Shawano County. And for many of those that live on the fringe of those encounters, they say it's time to do something about it.
For thirty years running at the Paiser Dairy Farm the top priority has always been the milk.
"I take care of the animals because they're the ones that pay my wages," says Tim Paiser the owner of Paiser Dairy Farm.
But slowly over the last couple years, concern has shifted just beyond the pasture to the wolves occupying the nearby woods.
"Without a doubt they are expanding and growing in numbers," says Rob Ejnik from the Town of Richmond. Ejnik is an avid hunter of pretty much every season and has seen the signs of wolves, and even wolves themselves increase over the past 10 years.
Just earlier this month the DNR confirmed a wolf killed one of Paiser’s cows by examining the dead carcass. Though Paiser knew what happened before the DNR came look into it. Paiser says he watched as the wolf ran away from his livestock who he had to put out of its misery.
"I saw the heifer lying there... I had to put her down," he says.
The heifer was a loss of 25-hundred dollars for the dairy farm plus all the milk it would have produced. And because wolves are on the Federal Endangered Species list, Paiser and his family couldn't do anything about the attack even if they had seen the wolf in action.
"Run after it scare it away I guess. Legally you can't do nothing about it…. You can go to jail or get a fine if you do take care of the problem," says Tim’s son Trevor Paiser who also works on the farm.
And while most, including the men NBC26 talked with today, wouldn't like to hear that there are no wolves in Shawano County, they all would like to cut back on their numbers.
"They just cause a lot of destruction they need to be controlled…You would be hard pressed to find somebody that’s in favor of having wolves running all over the landscape," adds Ejnik.
"We gotta manage these wolves locally through the state or whoever they want to do it. But somebody in Washington should not be managing these wolves in the state of Wisconsin," adds Tim Paiser.
Many who have encountered a wolf first hand say management is a need to control this growing wolf population in Shawano. The DNR says these are the first two wolf attacks in Shawano County in three years.
