So Hey DOL: When Do We Start Slaughtering Elk?
by jhwygirl
State veterinarian Dr. Martin Zaluski is nearing completion of the testing of adjacent herds to the infected cow that cost Montana its brucellosis-free status and is encouraged by the results. So far, none have tested positive.
“All of the testing so far has focused on ruling out cattle as the potential source,” Zaluski said. “As testing eliminates cattle sources, the likelihood that the infected cow contracted the disease from elk increases.”
What’s odd about that statement is that he’s automatically gone to elk.
Why is the state’s veterinarian reaching to elk as the cause when we’ve been rounding up bison and slaughtering them for what – 12 years now? Maybe more?
Then on other fronts, Bridger Teton National Forest Supervisor Kniffy Hamilton reauthorized 5 Wyoming state-run elk feed grounds on national forest lands for 20 years. She held back on one that doesn’t need re-auth until 2011.
Ever wonder why brucellosis only seems to be a problem in-and-around the Yellowstone ecosystem?
The problem is going to get worse before it ever gets better with Wyoming feeding elk and the USFS approving their feedgrounds.
Meanwhile, one Wyoming rancher was content to spay his whole herd rather than submit to testing. Wyoming recently had a cow test positive for brucellosis.
That’s one way to ensure Wyoming won’t lose its brucellosis-free status.
So, hey – as a solution, I suggest we open up 5 extra tags per hunter for the Gardiner/Livingstone and West Yellowstone areas. I’ll take my 5 all for area 313 please. Should make trophies pretty easy to get, don’t you think?
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July 18, 2008 at 11:01 am
I’m grateful for all your hard work and attention to these issues. Thanks for keeping us in the loop.
You know, I was thinking about this post, and it occurred to me that part of the problem is trophy hunting and pay-to-play hunting on private ground.
If it’s the cow elk that are the carriers, then FWP and ranchers ought to be encouraging more hunters to go out and get some meat from cow elk, not antlers from the big bulls. The way to reduce a herd’s population and density is to harvest the cows, and the fewer cows there are the less likelihood they’ll infect cattle. Ranchers have to take some responsibility in that regard. They want wild elk herds out of their pastures and away from their cattle, but they don’t want to give sportsman access to their land. Large herds are increasingly spending much of the hunting season on posted ground because they know they’re safer there than on the increasingly overcrowded public lands. We need to figure out a way to bring hunters and ranchers together in a mutually beneficial way, and I’m not talking about leasing private ground either. Most Montanans can’t afford-nor would they pay even if they could-to lease private hunting land. It goes against everything we believe. Subsistence hunters in this state, of which I’d bet there are more and more every year as food and gas prices go up, want an economical way to harvest game. With $4 or $5 gal. gas, we aren’t going to be able to afford to drive hundreds of miles to some remote, secret hunting spot. And many of us are growing resentful of driving by private, posted ground and seeing hundreds of elk casually grazing in a field, safe from hunters’ bullets, and then hearing the cattlemen complain that there are too many elk and they are endangering the cattle industry. It just doesn’t jive. If cattlemen want access to public lands, then they have to reciprocate and accept wildlife migration as a fact and help manage it in a responsible, ethical way. I think public hunting is a great tool.
How do we figure this out? Suggestions? Any ranchers out there ever read this blog? And friends or family members of ranchers? What are your ideas and suggestions?
July 18, 2008 at 11:47 am
Hehe. You really know how to get ‘em goin’ with that one, jhwygrl. Let’s just open up a shooting gallery in 313! Then let’s see if good ole Crow can mediate between the ranchers and the hunters. Or between hunters.
We always thought that the day the feds and state went after elk in the great brucellosis debacle, egged on by the Big Cattle & Co., that the national outcry would be so huge so as to force the government into finding a real solution.
Get the ranchers and hunters together? Bwuhahahaha!
BTW, in my springtime, tick-pluckin youth, the 313 (the OTO in par-tick-u-lar) was the most awesome boneyard, ever. I “racked” up some big miles, carried some hefty loads. Made sure them Chinese could still get it up.
I’m sure the folks at Dome Mountain would just love to share their prized grounds with subsistence hunters with pockets full of tags. I wonder who would end up hunting whom?
January 1, 2012 at 12:40 am
Hello, I really liked this information, I hope you continue updating, Greetings