Swannacks report wolf kill in Lamont

About mid-day on Friday, as Whitman County Commissioner Art Swannack was guiding the family’s sheep herd to a pasture with a tractor loaded with alfalfa hay. His wife, Jill, followed the herd with a four-wheeler, Jill saw a wolf.

An ice storm had brought down an electric fence that surrounded the field the day before.

As Jill, who is a veterinarian, herded the sheep with the Kawasaki Mule, a four-wheeler with a canopy, the wolf kept coming. At first she thought it was a big coyote, but as it got closer, she recognized it as a gray wolf. The wolf finally retreated when Jill turned the four-wheeler toward it.

They soon discovered a dead sheep over a small hill, laying in a stubble field with one rear leg missing.

Art Swannack said a wolf is the only predator with enough power in its jaw to take off a sheep’s leg.

The Swannacks believe that their two female Anatolian Shepherds chased the wolf off while the male dog guarded the sheep’s carcass.

They called Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and law enforcement officers determined the attack was “probable.”

The Swannacks run 1,100 head of sheep and use three Anatolian Shepherd dogs to guard their sheep.

Large, rugged and powerful, the Anatolian Shepherd dog is a working guard dog, possessing a superior ability to protect livestock. The Anatolian is known for its loyalty, independence and hardiness.

The Anatolian Shepherd dog is a guardian breed that originated in Turkey more than 6,000 years ago. Anatolians entered the United States in the 1950s.

Swannack said he’s borrowing two more Anatolians from some friends as part of a determent program against wolf attacks.

Swannack said although they’ve dealt with coyotes, this is the first time a wolf has attacked a sheep on their land.

The sheep kill was located south of Dewey Road about a mile west of the Cree Road intersection in the northwest section of Whitman County.

WDFW officials did a necropsy on the sheep in the field.

Swannack said the sheep kill has been rated a probable kill by a wolf by the WDFW agents who checked the scene. He said game agents explained the missing leg from the dead sheep left them unable to reach a positive kill conclusion according to the required criteria.