Elk guts blamed for rising grizzly activity

ISLAND PARK, Idaho – Critics of an eastern Idaho elk hunting ranch are blaming the area’s increased grizzly bear activity on piles of guts they say are left out after guests pay to shoot farm-raised game.

Don Sherick, who owns property next to the Velvet Elk Ranch at Meadow Creek Lodge, which operates a trophy elk hunting resort, said bears are flocking to the site to chow down on guts of elk killed daily behind a high fence.

Sherick said the elk innards are dumped on property just outside Meadow Creek’s pen, and he fears this could increase the chance of someone being attacked by a bear.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is already investigating a possible link between a grizzly mauling in Island Park that left a hunter with minor wounds and the elk hunting operation owned by Mike Ferguson, which included at least 167 elk last year.

“I think this is a major public safety issue,” Sherick told the Idaho Falls Post-Register on Monday. “We are pulling in extra bears into this bait station. They are staying longer, and we are training them to not be afraid. All of those are problems to people living in the area.”

Attempts to reach Ferguson weren’t successful Tuesday.

Controversy over the practice of shooting farm-raised elk has increased since August 2006, when more than 160 elk broke free from another eastern Idaho hunting operation. It prompted then-Gov. Jim Risch to order an emergency hunt to stop domesticated elk – regulated by the Idaho Department of Agriculture as livestock – from interbreeding with wild elk on the border of Yellowstone National Park.

Some hunters say it’s not sporting to shoot elk behind fences and claim that concentrating elk in a single area could lead to diseases. Proponents of such ranches argue that none of Idaho’s domesticated elk has tested positive for illnesses, including chronic wasting disease and brucellosis, and say industry foes are elitists who aim to stamp out their livelihood.

The state Department of Agriculture, which regulates high-fenced hunting, said it also has received a complaint about the gut pile. John Chatburn, the agency’s deputy administrator for animal industries, said Monday the department is now investigating how the Velvet Elk Ranch disposes of animals.

Prompted by the complaint, state officials are also reviewing the state’s rules governing how to dispose of dead livestock. Currently, the rule gives owners 72 hours to dispose of the remains.

The rendering area used by Ferguson is just yards from the boundary of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, where grizzlies roam freely.

Tennessee hunter Derek Fesmire, 37, suffered minor injuries when he was attacked last week by a female grizzly bear with a cub roughly a half-mile northeast of Ferguson’s hunting pen. A Department of Fish and Game officer visited the location late Monday to determine how the gut piles may have contributed to the attack.

Fish and Game officials say there could be as many as seven grizzlies within five miles of the pen.

“Our officer who investigated the bear attack said that when they were standing on the site of the bear attack, that at times they could smell what appeared to be rotting flesh,” said Steve Schmidt, Fish and Game’s regional supervisor.