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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Game Farms Fear Their Days Numbered Ethics, Disease Stir Controversy Over Montana’s Captive Elk

Susan Gallagher Associated Press

The Phantom Bull Elk Ranch, with its tall pines and big animals, fresh snow and a winding brook, looks like a peaceful park against a mountain backdrop.

Elk rest on the rolling land, children from town come to watch, and the sturdy log home of Jack and Myra Bridgewater looks rather like a small lodge, ready for guests.

But the Bridgewaters’ place is a working ranch, and the crop is elk. This is one of 97 Montana game farms or ranches, and they are in a controversy searing with issues of ethics, property rights and protection of public wildlife.

Game-farm critics say the industry puts wild Rocky Mountain elk at risk.

Animals in the confines of a farm are more likely to get sick, they say, perhaps passing disease to wild herds. Penned elk may escape, mate with wild animals and alter their genetic makeup.

Critics also say there is a temptation to steal public wildlife for farms, and that shooting preserves violate the ethics of hunting.

Game farmers who raise elk for their antlers and lean meat, for breeding stock and for people to shoot say the arguments are merely veils.

“Fish and Game (the state wildlife agency) would like to get rid of game farms,” said Welch Brogan of Corwin Springs, who began raising elk in 1946 and is considered the grandfather of the industry.

A lawyer for the Montana Game Breeders Association, Palmer Hoovestal, said the state wildlife agency is in the hunting business through sales of licenses, and thus has a conflict in regulating game farms.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Director Pat Graham said the agency enforces laws passed by the Legislature, and whether game farming is good or bad is not the department’s call. But the agency, operating under a five-member commission, sets the regulations for game farms, and game producers say that’s where the rub comes.

“They want to regulate us out of business,” said Bridgewater, who began raising game north of Townsend three years ago after he retired from logging.

Montana game farms have about 2,150 elk and 350 deer. Although other species are raised, these two, particularly elk, are at the heart of the gamefarm controversy.

Some elk farms tie their development to the distribution of Yellowstone National Park animals years ago. From 1912 to 1967, the park shipped more than 13,500 elk for restocking of public and private lands in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The game-farm industry, active in many states, has come under tighter regulation in Montana during the last few years and the state wildlife division is still working to make new rules under legislation passed in 1993.

Game farmers say they don’t fret about current regulations - they are worried about what might be in store.

A state senator from Florence, Democrat Terry Klampe, wants the Legislature to place a moratorium on new elk and deer farms and phase out those now operating.

Under Klampe’s proposal, the state would compensate game farmers for animals they are unable to sell during the phaseout. The value of an elk runs in the thousands of dollars.

Allegations that game-farm operators purloin public wildlife have figured into the controversy and continue today.

Brogan is appealing a year-old conviction for capturing wild elk, and Meagher County game farmer Kenneth Steven Killorn is scheduled for a February trial on charges of possession and sale of unlawfully taken elk, and records tampering.

But in recent years, the game-farm arguments have emphasized fears of disease, mainly tuberculosis, and genetic pollution of wild herds.

State regulators say a mule deer found last winter near the Hardin-area’s Elk Valley Game Ranch had tuberculosis, and no one knows of a local TB source other than the farm.

Subsequent TB testing of a coyote within a mile of the farm was positive.

Hoovestal said there is no conclusive evidence that tuberculosis has passed from Montana game farms to public wildlife. State officials say tracing diseases often is a matter of combining logic, available science and the mathematics of probability.

The argument about hybrids turns on the red deer, European cousin of the Rocky Mountain elk.

Opponents of game farms have argued that penned red deer could escape, breed with elk in the wild and pollute the genetic makeup of the state’s herds.

Game producers say fears of crossbreeding are overblown, but they have voluntarily moved red deer out of Montana and the state now prohibits importation of the animals. Opponents say reddeer genes could still be among the animals on Montana game farms.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ expense in administering the game-farm program and enforcing regulations runs in the tens of thousands of dollars, but revenue from game-farm licenses is only $3,000 to $4,000 a year. The agency draws much of its funding from sportsmen who buy hunting and fishing licenses and pay fees. Hoovestal contends a lot of the agency’s game-farm expense is tied to unnecessary work.Then there is the complaint that game-farm

fences interrupt the natural paths of wild animals. Game producers say migrating game know how to take detours, and private-property rights are the real issue here.

“I’d say if I want to put a fence around this place, that’s my business,” said Bridgewater, who has 200 elk, 35 deer and four bison on 700 acres.

MEMO: A sidebar appeared with this story under the headline “Regulations.”

A sidebar appeared with this story under the headline “Regulations.”