WI: Another Defense against Wolves Incident

Pack of wolves in Wisconsin game camera

On Saturday, September 21, 2024, Chase Melton shot a wolf in defense of self and others. There were several witnesses. It happened near the town of St. Germain, Wisconsin, a township in the North Woods about 20 miles from the border of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A township is usually six by six miles square.

Chase is 19 years old. He and several of his younger friends had risen early to hunt ducks and geese. They arrived at their chosen location about 3:45 a.m. on opening day. They set up their blind and threw out their decoys just before it became legal to shoot. Sunrise was at 6:42, but it started getting light at 6:15.  One fourteen-year-old in the group saw what he thought was a deer. Chase stood up and looked. It was a wolf. Melton made noise to scare the wolf off. The wolf looked at him and started moving faster toward the group. From wjfw.com:

“So, I grabbed my gun just in case something would happen,” said Melton. “Then, the 13-year-old who was two people down from me said ‘Chase right behind you!’ I looked, and we had a wolf at about five yards – I probably could have touched it with my hand, that was extremely scary. So now, we’re really panicking were like alright were surrounded we have a wolf charging us right now.” Said Melton.

A witness that was hunting 300 feet away reported seeing at least five wolves surrounding the young hunters’ blind and another four in the general area. The witness also reported hearing barks, growls and howls coming from the wolves surrounding the young hunters’ blind.

“This wolf got within 15 yards and I’m like he’s still coming, he’s still coming, he got withing 8-10 yards and it’s not what I wanted to do but to protect us and to protect them we felt harmed, so I pulled the trigger,” said Melton.

Melton fired one shot, close range at the wolf’s face using a 12-gauge loaded with non-toxic waterfowl load.

“This wolf that was five yards behind us went off into the woods, came down, and then grabbed this wolf that I shot by the neck and started dragging it off. I’ve never witnessed something like that.”

Cannibalism of members of their own pack has commonly been recorded when wolves are severely wounded or killed, if the pack is hungry.  With nine members, this pack may be hungry. September is usually a good month for wolves to gain weight for the winter, no snow yet, and all the young animals which survived the summer are still available.

This defense against wolves incident was about 97 miles from the furthest north incident, in Bayfield County, which happened on  Christmas or 2023. It was  about 92 miles from the February 2024 wolf incident near Hayward, and about 122 miles north of the two more wolf incidents  south of Wisconsin Rapids, which happened in 2015.

The wolf population in Wisconsin has been growing rapidly. The original target of 350 wolves has been surpassed long ago. The population is considerably more than 1,000. Under the far left Evers administration, the Department of Natural Resources has created a new wolf plan, without any population limit. The legislature demanded a limit. Governor Evers vetoed the bill on March 29, 2024.

©2024 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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