Yesterday, members of Wolf Patrol were questioned by Polk County Sheriff’s deputies after receiving a complaint from Wisconsin hound hunters, accusing the citizen-led monitoring project of interfering with their hunt for wolves. On December 2nd, Wolf Patrol located wolf hunters from Luck, WI, running their hounds in the Polk County Forest. The hound hunter was informed that Wolf Patrol would not be interfering with his wolf hunt, but would be monitoring the hunt for illegal activity. The encounter ended without incident.

On December 3rd, Wolf Patrol encountered the same houndsmen, hunting directly from the road, in the same county forest lands, and followed their vehicles during the hunt for six hours.

No wolves were killed during the monitoring of the hound hunt, nor did any members step further than ten feet from their vehicles during the entire encounter. Upon returning to Luck, patrol members were questioned by local Sheriff’s deputies, who said they had received a harassment complaint from the hound hunters in question. Wolf Patrol founder, Rod Coronado informed the deputy that our project had been cleared by the DNR, and that we would cooperate fully with any investigation into whether our actions constituted hunter harassment or any other violation of county, state or federal laws.

“We welcome any investigation into whether the monitoring of wolf hunting in Wisconsin on public lands constitutes a violation of the law. If it does, Wolf Patrol will use the opportunity to further expose the irresponsible practice of releasing hounds on public lands to chase wildlife.” said Coronado, who was the individual questioned by the police. Coronado said the deputy took a “hands off” approach when he was informed that our campaign was not condemned by the DNR. “When I explained what Wolf Patrol was about, the deputy expressed interest in our project and asked to see photos we took that morning of two deer carcasses we discovered dumped at a dead end road.” No citations were issued. The deer incident was reported to the DNR Poaching Hotline.