RANCHMEN'S TERROR IN TEXAS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9077, 29 April 1908, Page 3

RANCHMEN'S TERROR IN TEXAS.

MAD WOLVES AND THEIR PRANKS.

The ranchmen of this section are making a desperate effort to eradicate the wolves wliich infest their pastures. Notwithstanding the fight which has been waged against them lor many years their numbers show an annual increase. They seem to thrive with the settling up of the country. They are not only a menace to the live stock, but of late years rabies has spread among them to an extent that is alarming.

Many instances are known of the victim of one of these animals dying of hydrophobia. Since the establishment of a State hydrophobia institute at Austin three years ago, more than at hundred persons have gone there for treatment for mad wolf bites. The wolves are of the coyote species. They skulk around at night and kill young calves and make away with lambs and kids.

A SCHEME THAT FAILED. |

A few years ago Clement Bonterant, an Englishman, purchased a ranch west of here, says a writer in the St. Louis "Globe-Democrat"). He soon found that the coyotes were carrying off most of his calves and lambs. He employed Mexicans to capture half a dozen coyotes alive. He placed a sheep bell upon each of these coyotes, and turned them loose upon his ranch. It was Mr Bonterant's theory that the belled coyotes would frighten away all the other coyotes on the place. Instead, the belled coyotes attracted other eoyetes to them, and in a few days each bell-coyote had a big flock of follow- 1 ers, and these hordes of animals were playing worsejhavoc'^that^ever before. After many efforts the bell coyotes were recaptured, and the bells removed their necks. Mr Bonterant then tried the experiment of capturing a number of coyotes alive, and placing them in a pen with mangy dogs which he had brought from San A'ntonio for that special purpose. The coyotes soon contracted the mange and were turned loose. That experiment worked with better success that the one he first tried. Nearly every coyote in south-weat Texas is now afflicted with the mange.

MAD WOLVES. Mad wolves are such a menace to this section that many ranchmen have built corrals around their homes as a means of protection for thoir wives and children against attack by these animals. When afflicted with the rabies a coyote does not hesitate to enter the open door of a house or go boldly into a camp where men are sleeping, and attack whomsoever it happens to run across. A few days ago a party of deer-hun-ters were sitting around a camp fire over on the fc T ueces river. The night was dark and the air chilly. The men were enjoying the comforts of camp life when they suddenly heard the growl of a coyote, and before anyone could grab up a gun the animal walked into the circle of light, and passed squartly through the flames and coals of the fire. It then turned and started towards one of the hunters. Before the mad animal could get to him the man managed to get hold of his gun and kill it. The coyote, when ~ SUFFERING FROM HYDROPHOBIA, will attack and bite full-grown cattle. The bite produces rabies in the cattle, and the losses of stock from this cause are considerable. It is very dangerous to enter a pasture where there are cattle which are suffering trom hydrophobia. The animals charge everything in sight.