First special elk hunt begins

BOISE – An emergency public hunt opening today in Eastern Idaho won’t likely destroy all of the farm-raised elk that escaped from a private hunting reserve last month, state officials admit.

“I’m not expecting we will recover all the animals,” Steve Schmidt, Idaho Department of Fish and Game regional supervisor in Idaho Falls, said Monday. “It’s likely a number of these animals will never be recovered.”

Up to 160 domesticated elk broke through a hole in the wire-net fencing of veterinarian Rex Rammell’s Chief Joseph private hunting reserve near Rexburg in mid-August. Concerned the farm-raised elk could spread disease and pollute the genetic pool of wild herds, Idaho Gov. Jim Risch issued an emergency order Sept. 7 authorizing state officers to search out and destroy as many of Rammell’s loose elk as possible.

But after state agency shooters killed only 15 domestic elk between Sept. 9 and 15, Risch and the Idaho Fish and Game Commission decided to open a special depredation hunt for local private landowners and licensed hunters with valid elk tags. The first of three such hunts starts today and ends Monday, with no limit on the number of domesticated elk – identified by U.S. Department of Agriculture livestock eartags – that hunters can kill.

Rammell has vowed to take legal action against Risch and anyone who shoots his elk, although state officials maintain that Risch’s executive order exempts eligible hunters from any liability if they kill Rammell’s elk.

By Monday afternoon, Rammell claimed he had located or recovered all of his escaped elk. Idaho Fish and Game officials said they had no immediate way of verifying his claim and the emergency hunt would proceed as planned.

Fifty hunters who had drawn elk tags for the public land hunting area known as the Teton Zone were selected in a random drawing for the first of three depredation hunts. The other two hunts are scheduled for Sept. 26 through Oct. 2 and Oct. 3 through Oct. 14.