Appreciated the tapeworm info
A letter to the editor discussing why tapeworm is a scare tactic and not a reason to eradicate wolves.
My appreciation to Jim DeTro for his information on Echinococcus multilocularis (guest comment, Aug. 31).
Surely the wolf should be rendered extinct because he carries the little worm. And what about coyotes, fox, rats, mice and domestic cats and dogs? There are a lot more cats, dogs, and coyotes in Okanogan County than there are wolves.
According to a Wikipedia article on E. multilocularis, canids (dogs and their relatives) are definitive hosts for the parasite. Rodents are secondary hosts from which the canids catch the worm.
I assume that cats, both domestic and wild, are also definitive hosts.
I frequently see my neighbors’ dogs pooping in my yard. Maybe I should blaze away at them. Mr. DeTro would blaze away at the wolves. But I jest. Truly, I do.
I love my neighbors and their dogs. It has been 20 years since I discharged a firearm, and I’m not going to start now.
Excluding wolves from our ecosystem will definitely not keep us safe from tapeworms. If Mr. DeTro wishes to argue that wolves threaten cattle and deer, I won’t argue. But don’t try to scare me with tapeworms.
Next he will eliminate rivers and lakes because mosquitoes, perhaps the deadliest of all God’s creatures, breed in them.
