Feeding Rumors

Wildlife management

Jeff Siddoway’s feed company was banned from supplying elk-feeding pellets to the state when Siddoway became an Idaho Fish and Game commissioner in 1995.

But the company still shipped 430 tons of pellets to the state as a subcontractor in 1996.

It is all legal, state officials say, but some people question its ethics.

“That sounds pretty fishy,” said Kent Laverty, executive director of the Idaho Wildlife Federation.

The pellets, manufactured from hay, are fed to elk in the winter by the agency.

Sebs Feed and Supply, co-owned by Siddoway, was disqualified from bidding for the $300,000 elk pellet contract because it presented a direct conflict of interest under state law.

Sebs had held the contract with the state before Siddoway was appointed by Gov. Phil Batt to the commission, which oversees the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Last year, the contract went to Allyson Pearson, a Blackfoot homemaker who is a friend of the Sebs manager. She brokered the deal with the state, and then paid Sebs to deliver the pellets, unaware Sebs was disqualified from bidding.

“I went to them because they were the only company around here who could do it for me,” Pearson said. “They were the best deal.”