Grant County public commentators and some commissioners urge support for neighboring countieson Mexican gray wolf emergency declarations

A string of public commenters on Tuesday urged the Grant County Board of Commissioners to back Catron and Socorro countiesin emergency declarations related to Mexican gray wolf depredations and public-safety concerns.

Ty Bates, president of the Mexico Federal Adams Council, said the wolf presence is "a crisis," saying ranchers are "losing 30% of their livestock production" and asking the board to "support this resolution." James Dines described photographs he said show wolves near ranch houses and told commissioners that he had to put down a ranch dog he said had been attacked by a wolf.

Deborah Muller, Catron County manager and administrator of the county livestock loss authority, told the commission that wolves were reintroduced in 1998 and that, through December 2024, "it's cost the federal government about $74,000,000" and that there…