Sarah Post:
When and why did humans and wolves come into conflict in North America? Why did human predation of wolves often exhibit such violence? How did domesticated dogs aid human predation of wolves? What cultural meaning did people apply to wolves? Were wolves a kind of scapegoat?
Humans and wolves first came into contact before colonists settled, and wolf killing was especially prominent in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Humans assumed that wolves were so violent and a threat as they put human income, farms and livestock at risk of being jeopardized. Humans assumed that the wolves were vicious and ready to kill whomever. The threat of wolves first started in the Northeast Corner of Middleboro, when the Soule family set wolf traps to catch “poultry-stealing wolves”. Wolf killing became normal in colonial New England. English colonists would kill the beasts to prevent them from getting to their investments/ animals, they would kill them, dig traps, offered bounties, etc.
Furthermore, the killing of wolves became very inhumane and was praised culturally. Livestock owners began to tie two mackerel hooks together while dipping them in fat so wolves would swallow it and have a slow painful death. Furthermore, the town would offer rewards and bounties for whenever someone would bring in a wolf head, it became a game, to capture and eliminate the beasts. There became significant cultural aspects of killing wolves and became symbolic. The Algonquians would kill wolves and exchange their wolf skin as ceremonial gifts The English also would trade their essential services and goods for wolves’ heads
These towns in New England encouraged their populations to purchase domesticated dogs (specifically hounds and mastiffs) with the goal to train them to kill wolves. It also became more popular to have domesticated dogs when the town heightened the reward when wolves were destroyed with aid of a dog Wolves were killed when wolves were not even a threat to humans. For instance, a wolf was in a trap alongside a man at the Soule family farm and the wolf did not kill the man. However, wolves were considered a threat to eating livestock, destroying farms and being extremely violent to humans. Wolves were a scapegoat and had all humans turning on each other for victory. Furthermore, measures could have been taken to prevent wolves from getting livestock and to individuals’ farms. Such as fencing in their animals. However, it was an easier alternative just to kill the wolves.
Do you think wolves were considered a scapegoat? Do you think wolves should have been seen as a threat or that it was unnecessary for this killing to occur? Do you think it is specifically hard to understand using domesticated dogs to kill wolves considering they are the same breed?