The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department is barred by a court order from killing wolves that kill cattle in Eastern Oregon, but authorized ranchers are not, according to the department.

The department has issued 32 caught-in-the-act permits so far this year to ranchers, all in Wallowa County and all as a result of attacks on livestock by the Imnaha pack, said Russ Morgan, the department wolf coordinator.

The Imnaha wolves killed a yearling heifer Sunday morning in Wallowa County, bringing to 19 the number of confirmed livestock losses there since spring 2010. It s the fifth confirmed livestock loss to wolves since an Oct. 5, 2011, stay by the Oregon Court of Appeals ended the agency plan to kill two wolves from the Imnaha pack.

However, “caught-in-the-act” permits have been issued to some ranchers allowing a permit-holder to kill a wolf caught biting, wounding or killing livestock.

“The stay was against ODFW’s lethal removal of the wolves,” said Michelle Dennehy, fish and wildlife spokesperson. “That was when we were going to go in and find the wolves, but it is not against these permits.”

Permits allowing producers to haze wolves have also been issued, according to an agency press release.

But, the probability of the permit being used is low. Attacks typically occur at night and wolves usually avoid people, Dennehy said.

Permits have been used – sparingly – in other states, Morgan said

Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of three conservation groups that sued to halt the state wolf kills, said he was not concerned with ranchers having the ability to protect their herds.

“I don’t think the permits are covered by our stay, it’s ODFW actions to kill wolves,” he said this morning. “It’s a different regime, a different situation and we’re frankly less concerned about that than the ODFW hunting them down or trapping them.

The pack has also started preying on cows and heifers instead of calves. This trend may be attributed to the fact that ranchers have weaned their calves and larger cattle are all that are left. The result is a shift in the depredation pattern, Morgan said.

Before this weekend on Nov. 26, we confirmed two other cows killed by the Imnaha pack, Morgan said. The last four have been adult or adult-sized cows.

Two 2-year-old heifers were found dead on the northern Zumwalt Prairie Nov. 26. The Imnaha pack s alpha male, OR-4, was in the area for both attacks based on his GPS-collar data, according to the department s investigation summary. The alpha male was also present for Sunday s attack.

“The latest incident reaffirms that the pack is in a pattern of chronic depredation, which we expect to continue, Morgan said in an agency press release. While we believe the appropriate response is lethal removal of these problem wolves under the chronic depredation rule, that option is off the table due to litigation.

The wolves targeted the ranch twice over two days after the herd was gathered and kept in a pasture near the main ranch house prior to being shipped on Monday. Sunday morning, the landowner discovered the cattle had been run through a fence and found the yearling heifer dead a half mile away. The rancher returned the cattle to the pasture, only to find the wolves had run them through the fence again Monday morning.

Other wolves from the pack were likely with the alpha male, but their radio collars don t allow pin-point location tracking.

The rancher, which the agency did not identify, had taken a variety of non-lethal measures on different areas of his ranch over the past two years. He had installed flagged fencing to deter wolves on parts of his ranch and used a radio-activated guard device that makes noise when a collared wolf approaches. The rancher had also increased monitoring of his livestock and used a radio receiver to detect when a collared wolf was nearby.

“This is a good example of a situation where the landowner had done everything right,” Morgan said in the release. “I don’t think there are other measures that could have been reasonably taken in this case, so it is a very frustrating situation for livestock producers and wildlife managers.”

Gov. John Kitzhaber signed a compensation measure, House Bill 3560, into law Aug. 2. The bill allows the Oregon Department of Agriculture to retroactively compensate ranchers for their losses to that date. The measure includes $100,000 in rancher compensation. The bill is expected to go into effect January 2012, according to the department of agriculture.