Idaho ‘canned hunts’ scrutinized

BOISE — State lawmakers began gearing up Friday for potential legislation to regulate controversial “canned hunts” of elk in Idaho, a practice banned in some nearby states.

Prompted by concerns about the escape of at least 63 elk from an east Idaho ranch last summer, legislators convened an unusually large meeting to quiz state wildlife and agricultural officials about the effectiveness of laws governing domestic elk.

While officials discussed worries about the spread of disease between captive and wild elk and the ethicality of “shooter bull” operations, some senators expressed concern about violating ranchers’ private property rights.

“Well, folks, it’s going to get interesting,” said Sen. Tom Gannon, R-Buhl, who presided over a joint meeting of the resources and agriculture committees from both houses. The Idaho Department of Agriculture currently oversees 78 elk farms, some located in North Idaho. About 14 of them offer hunting, including at least one in the Panhandle.

Washington and Wyoming have banned game ranching altogether, while Montana allows game farms, but not hunting enclosed animals. Oregon allows limited game ranching, and Utah allows both ranching and hunting.

Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, said there will likely be bills introduced to prohibit elk ranching altogether.

Debate about elk farming in Idaho began in the early 1990s when game farmers successfully lobbied for control of their operations to be switched from the Department of Fish and Game, which has favored stricter regulations, to the Department of Agriculture, which oversees livestock.

Regulatory officials are concerned that ranch-raised elk may have genetic impurities or carry diseases such as chronic wasting disease, brucellosis or tuberculosis.

Conservation and some hunters’ groups also oppose enclosed hunts, but ranchers maintain their stock are disease-free and offer an opportunity for the disabled and others to experience hunting.

Most recently, elk escaped from a breach in the fence at Rex Rammell’s Chief Joseph hunting reserve, located near Yellowstone National Park, where hunters would pay thousands of dollars for a shot at a trophy bull.

Then-Gov. Jim Risch authorized killing the escapees, and the Department of Agriculture gave hunters permission to shoot them.State officials and hunters killed 43 of them, and Rammell, 33 of them inside his enclosure, said John Chatburn, a deputy administrator for the Department of Agriculture. Rammell has since sold his remaining elk and dismantled the reserve, Chatburn said.

None of the animals killed and examined by the state tested positive for disease, but officials killed one elk from Rammell’s stock in December after it twice tested positive for the potential genetic influence of red deer.

Asked whether the Department of Agriculture would fine Rammell for failing to notify officials about the escape, Chatburn said the investigation is ongoing.

“I think my legal folks have told me that’s about all I should say,” he said, adding that Rammell could be fined $5,000.

The elk escaped through a hole in the ranch’s perimeter fence where two rolls of fencing were joined together, Chatburn told legislators. The hole was patched before state inspectors arrived. The hunting reserve had been inspected earlier in the summer.

Jim Unsworth, chief of the Department of Fish and Game’s Bureau of Wildlife, said the department is concerned both with preventing disease from spreading to Idaho’s roughly 125,000 wild elk and with the ethics of canned hunts. Single fences required by the Department of Agriculture do not prevent “nose-to-nose contact” between domestic and wild elk, Unsworth said.

Diseases such as chronic wasting might be exchanged when elk come into close proximity, Chatburn said, but no domestic elk in Idaho have tested positive for chronic wasting, brucellosis or tuberculosis.

Unsworth said Fish and Game does not recognize enclosed hunts as hunting.

Gary Queen, president of the Idaho Elk Breeders Association and an elk rancher from Cataldo, said animal-rights activists and those against ranching are trying to “throw everything against the wall and see what sticks.”

“This issue is simply an emotional issue to try to eliminate elk ranches,” he said. “This is becoming a jury trial, if you will.”

Queen said the debate has had no effect on his business.

He said ranchers have made disease a non-issue and that “fair chase” is in the eye of the beholder.

Fish and Game also wants to stop spending money on removing wild elk from inside farms and on helping capture escaped animals, Unsworth said. Those efforts have cost the department at least $75,000 since July 2003.

Agriculture committees in both houses will start hearing proposed elk ranching legislation in February, state Sen. Gannon said. He encouraged lawmakers to “make it realistic.”

Chatburn said the Department of Agriculture does not currently have a bill to propose and will likely review the “myriad of bills proposed by other people.”