Letters to the Editor: Guard dogs don’t need to actually fight wolves to protect livestock
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To the editor: I was dismayed to read that wolves are heavily praying on cattle (“These wolves returned to California, but their eating habits have sparked alarm,” July 9). While I can’t fault ranchers for objecting to the wolves, they could reduce the predation with the use of guard dogs. I’ve spoken to ranchers about this, and their typical response of “A dog could never fight off a wolf” betrays a complete misunderstanding of the purpose of guard dogs.
They don’t need to fight off predators, they just need to alert the herder of their presence by barking. The wolves try to sneak up on their prey. Once a guard dog starts barking at them, they leave to find other prey. In Africa, people successfully use guard dogs to protect their livestock from lions and hyenas.
Miguel Muñoz, Los Angeles
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To the editor: How many thousands of years now have humans managed to raise their livestock as part of their food supply and, maybe with the help of herders or working dogs, keep their livestock safe?
These days, one would think that digital devices might substitute for herders or working dogs. But it would simply be cheaper to kill the wolves, right?
Lisa Edmondson, Los Angeles
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To the editor: California has a chance to lead in managing conflicts between wolves and ranchers. Sadly, the recent article in the Los Angeles Times about beef in the diet of wolves misses the point.
It is well-known that wolves occasionally attack cattle, but very infrequently: 198 livestock losses in 2025 across all packs are a tiny fraction of the roughly 5 million cattle in the state. Wolves are social animals that hunt in packs. Of the 12 wolf packs in California, only two rogue packs accounted for almost half of all livestock depredation in the state.
The important question is what we can do, other than lethal control, to reduce the likelihood of this rogue pack behavior. The notion that wolf recovery “is a result of feasting on cattle” is absurd. Wolves are recovering because we stopped poisoning, trapping and shooting them. Let’s not resume the killing based on misguided fear.
Peter Kareiva, Long Beach
This writer is chief scientist of Team Wolf, an organization focused on the long-term protection and recovery of gray wolves.
