California ranchers demand right to blast killer wolves with pepper balls

California ranchers sick of watching blood-thirsty wolves ravage their herds are demanding the right to blast the predators with pepper balls as Republican lawmakers are fighting what they call overly restrictive state laws on protected species.

Assemblywoman Heather Hadwick (R-Alturas) rallied with law enforcement and ranchers Wednesday at the Capitol in support of a package of bills that would allow livestock producers and others authorized by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to use pepper-ball-style projectiles to haze gray wolves, mountain lives and other animals threatening livestock and human life.

“The intent is not crowd control tear gas, but rather something similar to pepper spray for bears — something a little smelly that keeps the wolf away and may leave a bruise,” Hadwick told The California Post.

“Pepperball hazing gives ranchers and wildlife managers another way to protect livestock, reduce wolf-livestock conflict, and prevent situations where wolves become so conditioned to eating cattle that lethal removal becomes the only option left on the table.”

James Gallagher, a former Republican assemblymember from Yuba City who co-authored the package of bills before moving on to Congress, said the wolf attacks have been gruesome for ranchers across Northern California.

“It’s been a terrible issue for a lot of ranchers,” Gallagher told The Post. 

“Killing the cow is probably the most merciful thing that happens in many cases. These cattle are maimed and have terrible wounds that are walking around with open wounds, and they have to be put down.”

Gallagher accused Gov. Gavin Newsom of ignoring the issue as rural Californians bear the cost.

“Gavin’s running for president,” Gallagher said. “He’s not even addressing housing or homelessness or any of the major issues in California — let alone a wolf problem that’s affecting mostly rural California.”

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Gallagher added, “With his policies, he’s shown a complete disregard for farmers and ranchers and rural people. He pays lip service to it, but then he saddles us with the highest costs of the nation.”

The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gray wolves are protected under both state and federal endangered species laws. They disappeared from California about a century ago before returning through natural migration from Oregon in 2011.

AB 1673, in its current form, would allow people authorized by the Department of Fish and Wildlife to apply “aversive conditioning” on wolves to buy, possess or use a tear-gas weapon that expels a projectile. It’s a more aggressive approach than one researchers recently tried: blasting the AC/DC tune “Thunderstruck.”

Sightings have become increasingly frequent, including a lone gray wolf spotted in Los Angeles County.

Sen. Shannon Grove, a Central Valley Republican and coauthor of Hadwick’s additional bill, AB 1722, said ranchers in Sierra Valley and other northern parts of the state have been left powerless while wolves prey on calves. 

She added that the issue may not be felt in more urban areas like Los Angeles and San Francisco, allowing animal rights activists to frame the issue in disingenuous terms. In a social media post in May, the group Women for Wolves defended the gray wolves as “just native wildlife.”

“These people say they care about animals, but they don’t care about this baby [calf] just dropping on the ground, and then these wolves come and just start ripping it apart,” Grove told The Post. 

“It’s not just a revenue thing, it should be a kindness thing too.”

AB 1722 would shield Californians from civil, administrative or criminal penalties under the California Endangered Species Act. Ranchers would be allowed to use necessary and reasonable force to protect themselves, a family member or another person from immediate bodily harm from an endangered, threatened or “candidate species,” which covers animals and plants being considered for protective status.

Gallagher said ranchers are not asking for open season on wolves, but for authority to deal with animals that have learned to attack cattle.

“We’re not talking about going out and taking out every wolf,” Gallagher said. “We’re just talking about the problem of wolves who have essentially learned to kill cattle.”

The bills follow the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s October announcement that it lethally removed four gray wolves from the Beyem Seyo pack after what officials called an “unprecedented” wave of livestock attacks in Sierra Valley.

Between March 28 and Sept. 10, 2025, the wolves were responsible for 70 livestock losses, accounting for 63% of all confirmed or probable wolf-caused livestock losses statewide during that period. Officials documented 17 additional confirmed or probable losses between Sept. 10 and Oct. 14.

State officials said the wolves had become habituated to cattle despite months of nonlethal deterrence efforts, including drones, bean bags, all-terrain vehicles, diversionary feeding, fladry and 24-hour field presence.

“Wolves are as fat as fat can get because they’re feeding on baby calves,” Grove said. 

“Let us use tear gas to scare the wolves away. Let us do this to protect people’s property — and actually human life.”