Dogs are livestock, federal judge rules

LEWISTON – A federal judge has ruled there are circumstances when dogs can be defined as livestock, a decision that clears the way for a North Idaho kennel business to continue operating on land where federal Wild and Scenic River rules apply.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge is a victory for Ron and Mary Park, owners of Wild River Kennels, and a legal blow to the U.S. Forest Service. It also ends, for now, a 10-year-old legal dispute for the kennel, which is built along the Clearwater River near Kooskia.

The kennel property is along private land subject to an easement under the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. While the easement allows for livestock farming, the Forest Service claimed dogs and commercial kennels didn’t qualify .

Lodge initially agreed with the government, and in 2005 issued a ruling that concluded that dogs could not be deemed livestock.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded Lodge got it wrong. While the justices acknowledged the uncertainty of classifying dogs as livestock, they said wording in the easement was ambiguous.

Lodge changed course in his latest ruling, filed recently in U.S. District Court in Coeur d’Alene, and attempts to set parameters when dogs fit the livestock designation.