Washington Hunter
Well-known member
January 31, 2007
The outcry over Rex Rammell's escaped elk last summer is provoking lawmakers to rethink Idaho's laws on elk ranching and controversial "shooter bull" operations.
The incident fired up long-simmering arguments that pit private property rights against hunting ethics, and private elk ranchers against sportsmen. Then-Gov. Jim Risch ordered the more than 60 elk to be killed after they escaped through a break in a fence on Rammell's ranch in Eastern Idaho.
Three bills already have been introduced that would halt any new elk ranches for five years, make it mandatory for existing ranches to be licensed, and prevent elk ranchers from leasing state land.
Other bills could include banning or phasing out shooter bull operations, mandating double fences on elk ranches, restricting importation of elk into Idaho, and making people who shoot domestic elk buy a hunting license.
All bills pertaining to elk ranches are routed through the Senate Agriculture Committee because the Department of Agriculture has authority over elk ranches in Idaho.
Sen. Tom Gannon, R-Buhl, ag committee chairman, said he won't hold hearings on several bills that address the same things, but said, "We will try to get every issue before the committee."
He plans to start hearings on elk ranching bills Feb. 8.
Idaho currently has 78 elk ranches with a total of more than 5,800 domestic elk. About 14 of those ranches offer hunting.
The Department of Agriculture works closely with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, which gets called on to deal with escaped domestic elk or with wild animals that become trapped on elk ranches.
In the last decade, 221 animals escaped from ranches that raise domestic cervids — Cervidae is the family that includes elk and fallow deer. Of those, 192 were killed or recovered, including some of Rammell's elk. Twenty of his elk still have not been accounted for.
Ag officials have not cited Rammell over the incident, but the case is still under investigation, according to John Chatburn, deputy administrator for the department's division of animal industries.
Fears of disease and hybridization
Hunters, wildlife officials and others fear that pen-raised elk could pass diseases to their wild counterparts, or escape and interbreed, producing hybrids that are less well-adapted for survival.
Elk ranchers say their animals are tested and proven disease-free and pose no risk to wild elk. They say wild elk are more likely to pass diseases to domestic elk.
Domestic elk must be tested for tuberculosis, brucellosis and chronic wasting disease. Wild elk rarely are tested, but are known to carry diseases such as brucellosis.
Even so, domestic elk could pass on other diseases or parasites not found in Idaho's wild elk, according to Mark Drew, veterinarian for the Department of Agriculture and Fish and Game.
Drew said the probability is low, but if it happened, it would be very difficult to manage or eradicate.
"We don't have the ability to catch and treat every (wild) animal in the state," Drew said.
The Idaho Fish and Game Commission has asked legislators to establish and fund "appropriate policies" to protect wild elk and other members of the deer family from "disease and genetic risks posed by domestic elk."
Elk ranchers say they have a good track record of preventing disease and that their opponents are attempting to create hysteria after the Rammell incident.
"The biggest problem of all these things is they're built on fear and hype, not on fact," said Gary Queen, a Cataldo elk rancher and board member of the Idaho Elk Breeders Association.
He said any disease transmission would be more likely to come from untested wild elk.
Kristy Sternes, who owns Black Canyon Elk Ranch near Emmett with her husband, Roy, said existing rules are adequate.
Elk ranchers point to the incident where one of Rammell's elk was twice tested at a Canadian lab. Although the tests were not conclusive, ag officials said, the elk tested "suspect" for red deer genetic influence.
Under state rules, all domestic elk in Idaho must be certified as pure, which means they are genetically identical to their wild cousins.
The Department of Agriculture ordered the elk to be killed or removed from the state. The Sterneses bought it for slaughter and paid to have the animal tested at a genetics lab in New Zealand, which reported last week that the animal was pure elk.
Private property vs. public property
Domestic elk are considered nearly the same as cattle, horses, goats or any other livestock, which makes them legally different from a wild elk, which is owned by all residents of Idaho.
"Elk ranching is just like owning a potato patch — they wouldn't be there if we didn't put them there," said Sen. Jeff Siddoway, R-Terreton, who has an elk ranch. "They're there to be harvested."
But Sen. David Langhorst, D-Boise, disagrees.
"People who think elk should be domesticated and commercialized are focused on the private property rights and economic concerns," Langhorst said. "What they may not realize is a lot of Idahoans see this as an important philosophical question."
The governors of both Montana and Wyoming have asked Idaho officials to end shooter bull operations, which are outlawed by all of Idaho's neighboring states except Utah.
Siddoway said the Rammell incident has put the whole industry on trial.
"One guy in the family committed murder, and now people want to hang the whole family," he said.
Kristy Sternes said Idaho elk ranchers are united and depend on each other.
Ranchers who don't offer hunting typically sell their bulls to those who do.
"When one of us is under attack, we have to defend the whole industry," Sternes said.
Hunting ethics vs. private property
Many hunters and hunting organizations say shooting a domestic elk in a penned enclosure is unethical and should not be allowed in Idaho.
Earlier this month, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission issued a policy saying it does not recognize shooting domestic elk in a penned enclosure as hunting.
Most hunting is based on a "fair-chase" ethic. The Boone and Crockett Club, a hunting conservation and big game record-keeping organization, describes fair chase as the "sportsmanlike, and lawful pursuit and taking of any free-ranging wild, native North American big game animal in a manner that does not give the hunter an improper advantage over such animals."
The club does not accept into its record books any animal shot in a penned enclosure.
Bob Minter, president of the Ada County Fish and Game League, said Idaho has a long tradition of hunting wild elk under fair-chase principles.
But he said many people who don't hunt don't differentiate between hunting wild elk and penned elk, and shooter bull operations could attract anti-hunting groups.
"We don't feel the penned-up shooter bull operations are giving hunting a good look in the public eye, both in and out of the state," Minter said. "We feel it's wrong. An animal as majestic as an elk should not be penned up and shot."
Siddoway said he doesn't see an ethical difference between hunting elk in the wild and killing one within a fence.
"I can't differentiate between an elk ranch and anybody else killing an animal any other way," he said.
Siddoway also said people who pay to kill an elk on his ranch aren't just paying to pull a trigger — they're buying a whole experience.
"If you're not providing a good experience, you're toast in this industry," he said.
Queen said it is irrelevant who kills one of his elk.
"That animal is just as dead if I shoot it, or if the butcher shoots it, or if the person who wants to buy that animal shoots it," the Cataldo elk rancher said. "It's my animal, and I should be allowed to sell it because it's my property."
Money for management
Sportsmen complain that their money was spent to deal with Rammell's escaped elk. F&G spent about $50,000 dealing with Rammell's escaped elk, but it gets no revenue from domestic elk ranches because people who shoot penned elk do not need a hunting license.
F&G officials are currently dealing with a situation in Southeast Idaho where deer and wild elk are trapped inside an elk ranch owned by Rulon Jones.
Mark Gamblin, F&G's regional supervisor in Pocatello, said he suspected there were wild deer, elk and moose in Jones' 2,000-acre enclosure last fall when it was fenced. F&G officials flew over the enclosure this winter and spotted a herd of about 20 deer and about a dozen wild elk inside.
Gamblin said it would be difficult to get them out of the pen, and they probably won't try. After a wild deer, elk or moose is exposed to domestic elk, it is killed to prevent any possible spread of disease.
"We can't roll the dice on that," Gamblin said.
He said Jones has been cooperative, and the trapped wild animals are not unique to his ranch.
"This is a recurring problem," Gamblin said.
Hunters not only have to foot the bill when F&G has to deal with elk ranches, they also lose the opportunity to hunt the wild animals that are trapped in enclosures.
"It's also proving to be a continual problem, the loss of public wildlife," Gamblin said.
Early battle lines being drawn
Queen said elk ranchers will oppose a moratorium, but they might support licensing.
The Idaho Elk Breeders Association is working on a bill of its own that could include licensing, but details had not been finalized by presstime, he said.
Kristy Sternes said a licensing bill could show that the industry is trying to prevent another incident like Rammell's.
"If it would prevent something like that from happening again, it might be in line," she said.
The elk breeders group would oppose a moratorium on new ranches because it would hurt existing elk ranches, Queen said.
"Part of our business is raising breeding stock, so that would be a definite detraction from one of our markets," he said.
Legislation or voter initiative?
While the debate over elk ranching is now in the Statehouse, it might not end there.
Idahoans could follow Montana's lead and deal with shooter bull operations through the voter initiative process. Montanans voted to ban them in 2000.
"That's not a threat I am making," Langhorst said. "People have already called and talked about filing a petition if we don't go far enough."
Contact reporter Roger Phillips at [email protected] or 373-6615.
