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Hello and welcome to In Wisconsin.
I'm Patty Low.
This week, discover how these four-legged alarm systems keep
wolves at bay without ever being trained.
Find out why the chance to weigh in on the war in
Iraq is so personal for members of one Wisconsin community.
I think there is something that we started and we just
can't pull out, whether you think it's right or not.
I think that, you know, with all the people that
are dying and things that they should pull them out.
And meet a man who teaches the ancient art of Japanese
swordsmanship, but also embraces the Buddhist
philosophy of nonviolence.
We'll have all that plus a panoramic winter
view from Blue Mountain State Park in Wisconsin.
Major funding for In Wisconsin is provided by the people of
a lion's energy who bring safe, reliable, and environmentally
friendly energy to keep homes, neighborhoods, and life in
Wisconsin running smoothly.
A lion's energy, offering energy-saving ideas on the web.
The University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center
providing cancer research, education, and treatment.
UW Comprehensive Cancer Center Comprehensive has
designated by the National Cancer Institute, information
available on the web.
Wisconsin's Technical Colleges providing local education
for the crucial occupations essential to our communities.
Wisconsin's Technical Colleges.
Communities first.
The U.S.
Department of the Interior has proposed
taking gray wolves off the federal endangered or
threatened species list for the Western Great Lakes
region, including Wisconsin.
The proposal would seem to be good news because it means that
our state's wolf population has recovered enough to possibly
be removed from the list.
But what may be seen as a positive by wildlife
officials also presents a problem to farmers who are
losing livestock to wolves.
Producer Joanne Garrett met a pair of sheep farmers in
Bayfield County who found a solution to their wolf
problem by turning to a trio of cunning canines.
Just off County A in Bayfield County in the heart of the far
north is the Morning View Farm owned by Larry Fickbaum and
Gail Gomsior and their family.
It's 300 acres.
The family has horses, peacocks, chickens
and sheep.
Lots of sheep.
We're approximately 250 years right now.
We're looking at 400 lambs and we're
racing cattle with them.
And amid all those sheep is another animal that
looks like a sheep.
Can't blunder at end.
This sheep like dog is called a merema.
They stand about two and a half feet tall and
weigh in at 70 to 100 pounds.
There are three of them, Jose, Moses and Lola and they play
an important role on this farm.
They're not pets.
They're protection for the sheep flock.
We're in the heart of predator territory.
It's probably the most predators
in the state right here.
The other day I saw a bear right up the road.
I saw a coyote when I was cutting hay yesterday
and I often hear wolves.
The heart of predator territory.
We saw where the fawn had been killed by a wolf and that's
only a half mile away from here.
And you can tell because the coyote were eat around
the bones and the wolf were eat right through the bones.
I mean the bones of the backbone was cut right in half.
And sheep like these are easy prey.
Three years ago the family had first-hand experience with what
predators can do to a flock.
I went out one morning and I think we found about 15
lambs that were chewed up.
Eventually one year there were 28 carpuses that were found.
This is not a hobby farm.
Fickbom makes his living as a farmer and losses like
those were unacceptable.
It's not a very pretty thing this series.
It was very distressing.
You know and you think what could
we have done differently and you know we felt somewhere too.
We didn't protect them better.
At the time of the wolf strike they had only two
Miramis, Jose and Moses.
For years two dogs had been enough for predator control.
But Wisconsin's wolf population has multiplied in recent years.
So after the wolf strike three years ago they
added a third dog, Lola.
The math is now three Miramis for up to 650 sheep,
patrolling a 300 acre farm.
Despite the increase in wolves, three Miramis has
been enough to keep wolves and other predators away.
And so far it's been successful and it's been three years
since we've had a wolf strike.
And I guess that they're over the place I hear
them all the time.
Miramis are described as livestock protection dogs
or flock guarding dogs.
Their origin is Italy where they've been guarding
sheep for 2,000 years.
Different breeds of flock guarding dogs have been used
by shepherds around the world.
But it wasn't until the 1970s that Miramis were
brought to the US to work on sheep farms like these.
It's common to see a border collie hurting sheep.
"Come on, bring them up, bring them up, bring them up, bring
them up, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip."
But you'll never see a Mirama hurting sheep.
Miramis have no hurting instinct.
If you're dead, you'll see Miramis within a herd, patrol
and protecting, or sometimes even leading the herd.
"Actually, I've seen one dog hold the sheep at the
gate, while the other dog goes around the boundaries,
and then he comes back and goes, 'Okay, let them in.'
They check out the territory, make sure it's safe.
They're ready to protect the animals that they're with."
And they're with this flock 24/7, winter and
summer, on their own, patrolling, protecting.
"They mark a lot of their territory by
urinating and defecating.
We've gone out in the wintertime, and I've seen packs
know where the trail just keeps going around and around.
They kind of have a perimeter that they keep checking
over and over and over again.
They can be three quarters of an hour around."
So how do you get this dedication?
How do you train a Mirama to do this?
Answer, you don't.
"We don't train Miramis."
"You let the instinct work, and you let the instinct work
by not training these dogs.
They know commands whatsoever they don't know their name."
"Everything is instinct.
And that's the goal.
It's not to socialize these dogs.
They'll be in their driveway.
And that's not what they're here for.
They're here to protect the animals."
The bonding is best begun when the dogs are puppies.
"They were born in November.
It was cold and I had some wool around them last
time they shared them.
And I took a fleece and put it right in their nest with them.
And then I made a pan right in the middle of the sheep pasture.
They were engulfed by the sheep.
That's the type of thing that you have to do when they're
a pup to give them the bond."
"Miramis, come as far as where I can almost touch
this tree on this guy.
How you doing?
It's about always going to let me do.
To give him a shot or take care of him, we kind of got
to trip him and tackle him."
"It's really hard."
Miramis know their humans, but they're not bonded to them.
This is their pack.
And this passive-looking dog can be very aggressive
in protecting it.
"I came around the corner with the border collie
and we chased up a coyote.
It was really close to the sheep.
And he went around the corner and he ran smack dabble where
one of the guard dogs was.
And it was an awesome sight.
It was an ugly sight.
The cow was like a dish rag.
I mean, it lasted a matter of seconds.
It went after him.
I mean, so you went from one extreme to this mild mannered
dog to a vicious fighter and I said a matter of seconds.
And I've seen him chase bear right out of the pasture also,
right on the bear's tail.
Wolves, the Miramis traditional foe, require a bit more.
"A dog is not going to be able to fight with
a wolf and come alive.
Yeah, I'm sure what kind of a dog you have is
not going to happen."
But a pack of dogs, big imposing dogs like these Miramis, deter
the wolves by barking and charging, holding their ground.
"Before we got the guard dogs, I used to hear the sheep
going all the time, wake up and we were little and nice.
I was just going on out there whatever and now I sleep to
the night because I know I got protection out there."
The protection team.
"They have a communication system.
They work as a team."
We saw some of that teamwork in action.
The Miramis were friendly enough toward us while we were filming
and the family was around.
Jose settled down for a nap.
Moses hopped the fence to go off and patrol the farm.
When Jose woke up and found us in the field with the
sheep and without the family, he sounded the alarm.
"And Moses came running.
They joined forces, formed a barrier between us and
the sheep and kept watch till we left the field.
They almost have the pack mentality themselves, like
wolves do.
They have a wolf pack thing where they work together.
And wolves are extremely social and they work within
that pack for everything, raising their young and
kills and everything else.
And I think these dogs do some of that same thing,
their communication, their wandering, their trading
back and forth, you know, the type of guarding they do."
Miramis can cost around $500.
At a time when the pressures between people and predators,
particularly wolves, are growing ever stronger, these dogs offer
a relatively low cost, no-kill solution for coexistence.
Gamsiore and Fickbaum feel very strongly that the
wildlife, particularly wolves, is an essential
part of the North Woods.
Wildlife is part of the reason why they live there.
I firmly believe that this is wolf territory, this is
coyote territory, this is bear territory that we've come
into and chosen to be in, we need to learn to live within
that system as best we can.
And the dogs help us do that, and still farm
without negatively impacting our business.
I honestly don't think that we could be in business here
without these guard dogs.
Fickbaum believes the Miramis instinct to protect could
also be used by dairy farmers to bond the dogs
to cows and cattle, and in fact has witnessed his dogs
interact with his own cattle.
As people like Fickbaum continue to search for ways to
coexist with a growing wolf population, the government is
moving ahead with its proposal to take gray wolves off the
federal endangered species list.
Informational meetings and public hearings about the
issue are scheduled in May.
If you're interested in attending, there's a public
hearing scheduled in Duluth on May 8th, and another
hearing in WASA on May 10th.
You can go to our website at www.org/inwisconsin for
more on locations and times.
In other news, the spring election is just days away.
The only statewide race on April 4th would have been for
a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, but incumbent Justice Patrick
Rooks is running unopposed.
However, more than 30 cities and towns across Wisconsin will
have a special local referendum question on the ballot.
The wording of the question varies, but asks voters
whether the United States should start bringing
its troops home from Iraq.
Reporter Frederica Freiberg went to Baraboo, where
voters there will be weighing in on the question.
Baraboo is the Sock County seat with a population of
just over 10,000, and in this small city, the death
of war is close to home.
Flegs are flying at half staff at the courthouse here in
memory of an area Marine killed last week, so it will be just
days after a local soldier's funeral that people here will
vote on the question of whether to bring the troops home now.
There are strong feelings on both sides about the
war and its progress.
What's the purpose of it in the end?
And all this is killing our kids?
I feel that we started a job over there, let's finish it.
In Baraboo, the wording that voters will see on April
4 election day is simple.
The question asks, should the United States begin
immediate phased withdrawal of its troops from Iraq?
Our intention was really all along to have the
citizens have an opportunity to weigh in on the issue.
Baraboo resident Rob Nelson organized the effort to
get the troop withdrawal question on the ballot.
He and supporters gathered
more than 600 signatures, 20% more than they needed.
I don't think any of us here in Baraboo or any of the other
communities that are voting on this believe that on April 5th,
George Bush is going to wake up and look in the paper and
see that all these communities pass this referendum, and he's
going to say, "Oh, we have to pull the troops out now."
But I think it does provide really the strongest
measure of expression in the voting booth that people
feel strongly about this.
I am confident, I believe, I'm optimistic, we'll succeed if
not, I pull our troops out.
I really do trust those that are in authority
to do the right thing.
Baraboo resident Mary Dotson believes decisions about her
soldier's sons should be made by commanders and not by ballots.
She and her husband Reverend Michael Dotson have two sons in
the Army National Guard.
They are members of the Baraboo-based
Company C, 128th Infantry, deployed to the war zone.
22-year-old Matthew is a grenade launcher in the
Charlie Company.
His younger brother, 19-year-old
Michael, is a gunner.
I pray for them, pray for their safety, pray for the
safety of all the soldiers that are over there.
Reverend Dotson prays and believes in the
mission. Believes we should stay, not leave.
If we pull out now, I think we'll be back there again.
I, in the near future, if it might be in other 10 years,
but we'll be back and have to deal with the issues again.
I'd rather see us deal with it now, get it taken care
of, and then bring our boys back home so we don't
have to go back to war.
What's it like for you as a mom to have your boys
over there?
Sometimes, kind of got wrenching.
Sometimes physically hurts.
And yet Mary Dotson says as much as she wants her
son's home, she will also vote against the referendum.
She says the question itself calls into question support
of the troops.
Not so, say those in favor of a pull out.
Well, I think there's really a clear distinction that we try
to make between supporting the troops and supporting those who
are making the decisions to put those troops in harm's way.
Soldiers like Michael and Matthew Dotson, who also
weighed in on the referendum to bring them home.
I think their comment was, what good is that?
You know, what good is it going to
do to have a referendum?
It's true.
The outcome of the referendum is non-binding,
but supporters hope it sends a message to politicians.
Meanwhile, at the Armory in Baraboo, yellow ribbons,
whether the seasons until Charlie Company ends its tour
and comes home, this Christmas.
You can find out more about the war referendum and the
spring elections by checking out WisconsinVote.org.
Our election year online resource.
Again, the address is WisconsinVote.org.
As many Wisconsin voters get ready to voice their
opinion on the Iraq war, it's a good time to stop and
appreciate our civil liberties.
The right to vote, freedom of expression.
What would happen if those
rights were stripped away?
Menoru Kiota is a retired UW-Madison professor
and knows firsthand how precious civil rights can be.
Kiota is an American citizen born of Japanese parents.
History is one that reminds us that the rights of citizenship
should not be taken for granted.
Students at UW-Madison welcome distinguished guests from Japan.
The visitors demonstrate the ancient art of Japanese
swordsmanship called Kendo.
The demonstration is a part of the Kendo class
taught by Menoru Kiota.
Kiota has been teaching Kendo for 16 years.
The Kendo class uses wooden swords and
weapons made of bamboo.
The object of this exercise is to contact specific points
on your opponent's body.
Kiota teaches his students both the physical and
philosophical aspects of Kendo.
I try to interpret Kendo from the perspective of a Zen
philosophy and the focus is on realizing personal growth.
The practice of Kendo can help students transform
challenges into personal growth.
Kiota knows this lesson only too well.
His challenges began at a young age.
Kiota was born in America, but when he was 11, his
mother sent him to Japan.
She wanted him to learn the culture of her homeland.
To prepare him, she signed him up for judo
lessons after school.
I think I owe much to my mother.
Rather than playing basketball, she told me
that I should go to judo.
Simply because boys would not look done upon
me if I studied judo.
Kiota lived in Japan for four years.
He says it was hard at first, but his experience in judo and
kendo provided common ground with his Japanese classmates.
His Japanese teacher taught him an important lesson.
Don't fight outside the classroom.
And that was a great message for me because it gives
you an inner strength.
Don't fight.
And since that time, whether I studied judo or kendo,
I never got into a fight.
This life lesson was put to the test after returning
to San Francisco.
Kiota was in high school in 1941 when
Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
Four months later, the US Army forced West Coast
residents of Japanese descent into detention camps.
It didn't matter that many, like Kiota, were US citizens.
Stripped of his civil rights and surrounded by guards with guns,
Kiota refused to sign what's been called the loyalty oath.
The oath required that Kiota promise to take
up arms against Japan.
Because I was educated in part in Japan, I knew that I could
not take up arms to kill person with whom I have studied.
Now, if I were in Japan and I got stranded there
and the world began, I would never take up arms to
kill my American friends.
In 1943, Kiota's situation went from bad to worse.
The FBI accused him of belonging to a reactionary organization.
The organization was his high school kendo club.
Afterward, they moved him to a different type of camp, one
earmarked for Japanese labeled "disloyal and dangerous."
And that was a horrible place, you know.
At the new segregation camp, Kiota lived in fear.
He says other detainees beat him
up and a guard shot at him.
In addition, he says he witnessed abusive treatment
of other internees.
They were dragged like an animal, put into a
pen, and you know what?
The agents, their security agents, they hit the guy on
the head with a baseball bat.
At this point, Kiota made what he later called
a "stupid mistake."
In 1944, Congress passed legislation allowing US citizens
to renounce their citizenship.
In anger at the injustice of his incarceration, Kiota signed
away his American citizenship.
Kiota wasn't released from the segregation camp until six
months after the end of the war.
It took almost another ten years to win back his citizenship.
In the meantime, he earned an undergraduate degree
in the United States, followed by a master's
and doctorate in Buddhist philosophy in Japan.
He moved to Madison to teach at the university in 1962.
He says the study of Buddhism helped him put
his past into perspective.
That was a more important phase of life rather than choosing
size and loyalty or disloyality.
Because war is nothing but an extension of state power.
What is most important is to enable the individual
to realize personal growth.
That is the essence of Kendo.
Kiota enjoyed the benefits of Kendo as a child in Japan
and during every one of his twelve years in college.
I constantly attend both the Judo and Kendo gym.
So much so that I sometimes wonder how the
hell did I get my PhD?
Since beginning his teaching career, Kiota has published
and lectured on both Buddhism and Kendo in the
United States and in Japan.
He has dedicated his life to creating understanding across
cultures and across generations.
Kendo has served as the key.
[Music]
And that's our program for this week.
Join us next week when Art Hackett will have a report
on the immigration bills being debated in Congress
and the potential impact here in Wisconsin.
We'll also introduce you to a hip-hop musician who
hit the right note when he developed a special therapy
for a girl living with autism.
What has Annie Song meant to your mornings?
It has helped me so I get a time from the bus.
But it's more than that.
In the last two years her life has done nothing but improve.
The only thing I can say concretely is there's a song
that came into her life and she has become a different child.
That's next week.
We leave you now with a winter walk through Blue Mountain
State Park in Iowa County.
For In Wisconsin, I'm Patty Lo.
See you next time.
[Music]
Major funding for In Wisconsin is provided by the people of
Alliant Energy who bring safe, reliable and environmentally
friendly energy to keep homes, neighborhoods and life in
Wisconsin running smoothly.
Alliant Energy offering energy saving ideas on the web.
The University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center
providing cancer research, education and treatment.
UW Comprehensive Cancer Center comprehensive has
designated by the National Cancer Institute information
available on the web.
Wisconsin's Technical Colleges providing the people of
Wisconsin with the knowledge and skills they'll need
for the economy of tomorrow.
Wisconsin's Technical Colleges.
Communities First.
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