NewWest.Net
The Voice of the Rocky Mountains
By Bill Schneider, 9-14-06
The
news bugling out of eastern Idaho last week should scare the
stuffing out of every elk hunter and wildlife biologist in the New
West. A large herd of domesticated, genetically engineered elk--or
at least we hope they were elk--escaped from a game farm and are now
mingling (aka breeding) with wild elk, and probably not only in
Idaho, but also in Montana and Wyoming. We don't know if they're
carrying chronic wasting disease (CWD), but we know they're carrying
some bad genes, so there goes the gene pool in the Greater
Yellowstone Ecosystem.
All this happened because we don't have the good sense and cajoles
to do what needs to be done to prevent a disaster that we've been
able to see coming for decades. Will we learn our lesson before it's
too late, if it's not already too late? Or should we prepare to
spend our Octobers and Novembers of the future indoors reading about
how elk hunting used to be?
As many as 160 elk broke through a fence in mid-August on the
200-acre Chief Joseph Elk Genetic Improvement and Canned Hunt
Farm--self proclaimed as "Idaho's Finest Sportsman's Retreat"--near
Rexburg, Idaho, on the fringe of the Targhee National Forest and 10
miles from Yellowstone National Park. The jail break was not
immediately reported as required.
"This is the train wreck we've seen coming for a long time," Steve
Huffaker, director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game,
exclaimed in an August 30 AP story, as he announced the escape.
I checked
the canned hunt operation's website and see that the hunts go
for $5,995 for "any trophy elk." The three-day guided hunts include
a guide, packer and guarantee, and you pay extra for the meat. If
you go without a guide, then, there's no guarantee you'll take a
trophy bull home.
Hunt the West's finest private elk herds, the website proclaims. Dr.
Rex Rammell, "a devout big game sportsman and veterinarian
specializing in wildlife management," has used "trophy genetics" to
grow some of North America's largest trophy bull elk.
Even though Wyoming has a similar time bomb ready to go off in the
form of 22 elk feedgrounds, the Cowboy State had the good foresight
to ban game farms 31 years ago. Montana tried to get its legislature
to do this, but failed, so in year 2000, hunters in the Big Sky
State took the initiative from the politicians and passed a ballot
measure that disallows shooting wildlife for a fee, prevents the
expansion or transfer of existing game farm licenses, and bans the
creation of new operations.
I'm sure hunters and wildlife biologists in Idaho would like to be
like Montana or Wyoming in this case, but so far politics has
prevented meaningful reform--although last year, at least, the Idaho
legislators refused to expand the state law to allow moose farming
and canned moose hunts.
Unlike Montana and Wyoming, Idaho has a powerful lobby called the
Idaho Elk Breeder's Association. (They really should consider
changing the name, don't you think?) But even the elk breeders' own
association doesn't approve of what was going on at Rammell's game
farm, nor is Rammell a member of the association. And no wonder!
This situation could--and should--lead to a prohibition of elk
farming and canned hunts in the Gem State.
Even though similar domestic elk at similar canned hunt
concessionaires in other states have been diagnosed with CWD,
there's no evidence that these escapees carried the dreaded disease
or any other disease. One reason we don't know this is because
Rammell refused to allow state inspectors to test his animals. This
should have been enough for the state to immediately close and
quarantine the operation, but again, I suspect, politics prevented
this from happening.
But fears are rampant that the escaped animals did indeed carry CWD
and perhaps other diseases such as brucellosis and are currently
infecting the wild elk population in the local area. And the "local
area" includes Yellowstone Park.
Also rampant are fears that the elk weren't purebred elk, but
instead red deer or elk/red deer hybrids. Rammell did tell the Idaho
Statesmen that elk hunters shouldn't fret because the escaped elk
were "genetically superior." Now, there's a statement should give
elk hunters and wildlife agency directors severe heartburn.
At the very least "genetically superior" means, the elk were
selectively bred to produce oversized (aka unnatural) antlers. Now,
in the midst of the September rut, those domestic, genetically
superior bulls are out there breeding with wild, genetically normal
cows.
Idaho Governor Jim Risch met with his staff and immediately signed
an Executive Order to deal with the situation, but will it be
enough? He sent seven, three-person teams of shooters into the local
area to kill the elk, but after more than a week of trying to find
them and enduring interference by Rammell and his employees, only
about a dozen have been shot. Rammell reportedly has re-captured
about 40 animals, which of course leaves most of the escapees loose
and probably dispersed over a large area. It's highly likely many of
the escaped animals will never be recovered.
The Elk Breeders supported Governor Risch's action, which angered
Rammell. He has threatened legal action and warmed the association
that this could stop all elk ranching in Idaho. Hunters can only
hope that his fears are well founded.
One major problem is, of course, telling the difference between a
wild elk and a genetically superior elk. Idaho law requires that elk
breeders put blaze orange ear tags on their animals specifically
with this problem in mind, but Rammell has refused to comply. Those
orange ear tags probably made it difficult for him to convince
customers to fork over $5,995 for the privilege of shooting an
animal that might resemble an ear-tagged Hereford or Angus bull,
which is not far from the truth, of course.
Instead he puts small brown tags that are virtually impossible to
see. Allowing such blatant and illegal misbehavior should send a few
heads rolling in the state Department of Agriculture, the agency
responsible for enforcing the law.
It gets worse. In 2002, Rammell successfully lobbied the Idaho
Legislature to forgive most of the more than $750,000 he owed to the
state for failing to apply blaze-orange ear tags to identify the
animals as domestic. You'd think such forgiveness would, at the very
least, carry a requirement that he comply with the law in the
future, but four years later, he is still ignoring the legal
mandate.
If the state agency shooters can't kill the elk, the Governor's
Executive Order allows the Fish and Game Commission to authorize an
immediate depredation hunt. That's in addition to the archery season
already open in the area around Rammell's elk farm.
In the end, it seems, a lot of elk are going to die, and that might
be the best thing that could happen. As I've noted
in past postings on this situation, the cure for game farming
can be worse than the disease.
Drastic reduction of a local elk population always sounds bad, but
nothing compared to the long-term pollution or dumbing down of the
gene pool or the spread of CWD. When this incurable disease gets
into the wild population, the state regulators will likely opt for
temporary elimination of the local elk herd to keep it from
spreading.
But alas, amid this doom and gloom, there is also good news. This
embarrassing situation should be enough of a jolt to Idaho elk
hunters and wildlife agencies into reality and convince them they
should stop bowing to the agricultural lobby and go to the
legislature for meaningful reform. And this reform should kick into
motion a process resulting in the gradual elimination of game
farming and canned hunt operations. If the legislature wimps out, I
only hope hunters will use the initiative process to put it on the
ballot and pass it as Montana did. {else:if} The
news bugling out of eastern Idaho last week should scare the
stuffing out of every elk hunter and wildlife biologist in the New
West. A large herd of domesticated, genetically engineered elk--or
at least we hope they were elk--escaped from a game farm and are now
mingling (aka breeding) with wild elk, and probably not only in
Idaho, but also in Montana and Wyoming. We don't know if they're
carrying chronic wasting disease (CWD), but we know they're carrying
some bad genes, so there goes the gene pool in the Greater
Yellowstone Ecosystem.
All this happened because we don't have the good sense and cajoles
to do what needs to be done to prevent a disaster that we've been
able to see coming for decades. Will we learn our lesson before it's
too late, if it's not already too late? Or should we prepare to
spend our Octobers and Novembers of the future indoors reading about
how elk hunting used to be? [End of article]