WILDLIFE -- The Idaho Legislature seems willing to take a step backward in regulations designed to protect the state's priceless wild elk herds.

Elk ranchers who sell meat and charge hunters to shoot trophy bulls inside fences convinced a Senate panel to relax requirements to test for a deadly brain disease that's plagued other states' herds, according to  The Idaho Statesman.

All Idaho domestic elk now must be tested annually for chronic wasting disease.

The Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee on Tuesday voted 5-3 to allow virtually all Idaho elk ranchers to test just 20 percent of their animals once every three years

The bill heads to the Senate.

Some sportsmen's group opposed the measure, raising longstanding fears of disease spreading from domestic elk to Idaho's prized wild elk herds.

But Sen. Jeff Siddoway, an elk rancher and Republican Senate committee member, argued testing has never detected disease in Idaho's domestic herds, proving the standards can be safely relaxed.

Uh, does Mr. Siddoway have a conflict of interest in this vote?