Department of Environment staff have pulled the snares they set to kill wolves preying on pet dogs this winter.

Department spokesman Dennis Senger said today staff removed the quick-kill neck snares last week and over the weekend from three sites around Mary Lake and one at the Whitehorse landfill.

The decision was made because there have been no dogs reported missing lately and nothing to indicate wolves were still active in the area, aside from sparse reports of a wolf being sighted, Senger said.

The department has snared 10 wolves to date.

The first eight were snared in the first week of January near the Whitehorse dump. A group of seven was caught all at once, followed by a lone wolf a day later at the same snare site. The last two were snared Jan. 29 at a site in the Mary Lake area.

The department received reports this winter of 13 dogs being killed and eaten by wolves. Twelve of the incidents were in the Mary Lake, Wolf Creek, Cowley Creek, Golden Horn and Annie Lake Road areas.

One report came in from the Mendenhall subdivision west of Whitehorse, just past the Kusawa Lake turnoff.

The department was criticized early this winter by pet owners who thought they should have been warned about the potential threat much earlier.

Others have criticized the department for killing wolves to protect what some have suggested were irresponsible pet owners.

Some of the dogs taken, however, were taken right off their leashes, and, in at least one case, from inside a dog yard illuminated by a street light.