Soon the Idaho legislature will convene and it seems there’s not a lot to talk about in Idaho except elk. This past summer elk escaped from the Chief Joseph ranch near Rexburg in eastern Idaho. (* Scroll for related stories *) That event set off a myriad of confusion and fear which prompted the Governor to order all the escaped elk killed, along with several wild elk that got caught up in the slaughter.

The confusion came because some didn’t know who was in charge, the Fish and Game Department, the Agriculture Department or the Governor. Sometimes I wondered if the Governor of Wyoming was showing more authority in Idaho than Gov. Risch. Fear was the result of rumors and misinformation that the elk had been crossbred with perhaps red deer and that the animals would be carrying disease. Tests showed none of the animals had any disease but some of the wild elk tested, showed large liver flukes. Only one cow elk tested positive for some red deer genes. No one really understands how that could be which adds to the confusion.

Fear, confusion, misinformation and contradiction still seem to be the rule as hunting groups are insisting that the state ban elk farming to protect their hunting interests and future of the elk. Now lawmakers are scrambling around, composing bills for the upcoming session scheduled to begin after the New Year’s break.

Senator Tom Gannon, (R) Buhl, who will be the incoming chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, says he knows of at least eight bills in the works.

Up to eight different proposed bills may be introduced, calling for everything from a total ban on elk farms in Idaho to tightening how they’re regulated to varying degrees, said Sen. Tom Gannon, R-Buhl, incoming chairman of the Senate ag committee.

At least one proposal may come from the elk industry itself, seeking more regulation and inspection, he said.

And Senator Dean Cameron says nine bills await the scrutiny of the legislature when it returns. Cameron met with elk breeders and sportsmen on Thursday to give each side a heads up on what’s expected in hopes the two sides can find some common ground.

Rep. Tom Trail (R) Moscow, says he thinks it would be a good idea for everyone to get the facts straight before making any decisions.

“There have been so many news articles and rumors circulating around exactly what happened in Eastern Idaho that we need to get our facts straight before we act,” Trail said. “Right now, I’m not sure exactly what the situation was.”

Trail suggests a joint committee meeting with the Governor’s office, the Department of Agriculture and the Fish and Game to sort over what’s fact and what’s not. While the idea seems good, I’m not sure that those three offices are going to come up with facts. Already there is too much politicking going on here. The Governor has made no effort to keep secret his desire to see elk farming banned and the Agriculture and Fish and Game departments seem to be warring half the time over who controls elk. Perhaps this committee should reach out a bit more and include some neutral interests and even first conduct an investigation by non-partisan individuals who can come up with the facts.

There are several sides to this issue. This is an issue that is very scientific. Before Congress can make any laws, they need to know the real science behind elk, disease, genetic morphing, dangers and all that it entails. It’s also a rights issue. People in Idaho should have the freedom and rights to conduct free enterprise in a way that is not detrimental to the safety of the people. Has it ever been really determined that elk farming is a public safety issue? And it’s an economic issue. The elk industry claims that their business brings in over $24 million a year to the state. This means a lot of jobs for Idahoans. In the same way, elk hunting is big business and brings not only local businesses a lot of money but licenses and permits creates big revenue for the Fish and Game Department. This in itself can cause quite a conflict.

While I understand the plight of the elk hunter, one has to wonder if the threat of the spread of disease and the accidental cross breeding of different species of deer warrants a complete ban on elk farming. It would seem logical that the experts can determine what changes might be needed in the elk farming industry that would make it virtually “safe”. Better testing and record keeping along with inspections could provide a way for the elk industry to continue to thrive and at the same time would protect the wild herd and the elk hunting and tourism industries.

It is unlikely that this session of Congress is going to place an outright ban on elk farming. Reasonable measures would call for changes to make elk farming better regulated. At worse a stoppage of any new elk farms and perhaps a gradual phase out. It would be prudent to offer changes with heavy monitoring to determine if the changes would work and make adjustments accordingly.

*Previous Posts*

Do As I Say And Not As I Do
Wyoming “Brucellosis-Free”
Rex Rammell Arrested, Again….Cow Elk Tests Positive For Red Deer Genes
Fanning The Flames
Idaho’s Escaped Elk Test Negative – Elk Ranchers Face Banning Advocates
Idaho Governor Calls Off Elk Depredation Hunt…..Sort Of
In Response To Malnourished Elk
Rex Rammell’s Letter To The Editor
Has Government Gone Too Far? More Escaped Elk Shot
What Do Malnurished Elk Look Like?
Idaho Elk Breeders Association Opens New Website
Bull Elk Shot Inside Rex Rammell’s Ranch
Wyoming Governor Asks Idaho Governor To Ban Game Farms
Escaped Idaho Elk Shot In Wyoming
Rex Rammell Arrested
Governor Jim Risch Defends His Decision To Shoot Escaped Elk
Idaho Gubernatorial Candidates Have A Say About Elk Farming
Rammell For Governor, Ranch Sold, Elk Still Being Hunted
Wyoming Governor Freudenthal Says Interior Department Not Doing Enough About Escaped Elk
Idaho’s Escaped Elk Now Getting National Attention
Idaho Elk Farmer Says All His Elk Accounted For
Idaho Governor Expands Hunt For Escaped Elk
More Elk Killed In Idaho – Some By Hunters
Idaho Elk Farmer Plans To Sue The State
Scientists Will Test Killed Idaho Elk For Disease And Genetic Make-up
A Helicopter, A Plane And 25 Agents Can’t Find 160 Domestic Elk
Escaped Idaho Elk Being Slaughtered. Wyoming Ordered To Kill Elk Also
Domestic Elk Crash The Gate – Escape!

Tom Remington

For anyone interested, there is a Steve Johnson video available here on how to properly field dress a white tail deer. It about 7 minutes long.

Tom Remington

Reading an article this morning in the Times-Herald Record, Sullivan County, New York had a dismal deer hunting season. Although official records won’t be known for some time, some are saying the number of deer tagged may be the worse ever.

Hunters say this year’s deer season — marred by freakishly warm weather and fewer hunters — was one of the worst on record in Sullivan.

This is the third lousy season in a row, in a county where many businesses depend on hunting to make it through the winter doldrums.

This year the Department of Environmental Conservation had made some changes in the rules that they hoped would boost the deer herd. They issued fewer antlerless deer permits and required hunters to shoot only bucks that had at least 3 points on one side of their rack. These changes combined with two previous years of mild winters, one would have expected to see the opposite results.

But I’m not sure the reason for fewer deer being taken is the result of not so many deer.

Last year, hunters shot 3,082 deer in Sullivan, the lowest take in decades. A low take has a silver lining — there will be more deer in the woods next year. But what’s most troubling about the season, according to sportsmen and the hunting-related businesses, is that fewer hunters showed up. And those who did come up didn’t stay as long, said Richard Post, owner of the Fur, Fin and Feather shop in Livingston Manor.

The DEC’s decision in 2005 to move opening day from a Monday to a Saturday was supposed to bring back young hunters. It hasn’t worked.

There isn’t a good crop of upcoming hunters, said Lt. Deming Lindsley, a member of the DEC’s law enforcement division who works closely with hunters in Sullivan. “The kids are choosing other things.”

It sounds like the Sullivan County hunting clubs need to get together with the DEC and come up with some better ways of attracting new hunters.

Tom Remington

Much to no one’s surprise, the coyote that officials shot and killed the other day, tested positive for rabies. The coyote attacked and bit two men and a woman in Northampton County. Everyone who had come in contact with the animal was notified of the results. The three people who had been bitten had already begun treatment for rabies.

Tom Remington

Last night on The News Hour on PBS, Gwen Ifill interviewed U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne about the plight of the polar bear. The Bush administration is looking into the possibility of placing the polar bear in Alaska on the threatened list as part of the Endangered Species Act. The most disturbing part of the interview centered around Gwen Ifill’s attempt at getting Secretary Kempthorne to admit that there is such a thing as global warming. I wondered if any threat to the polar bear was of any importance.

In the first part of the interview, Ifill hits Kempthorne with the first question about global warming.

When you say “that trend is now taking place,” are you acknowledging that there is, indeed, global warming which is causing this to happen?

Shortly after listening to Kempthorne’s response to what the process will be to examine the needs of the polar bear, Ifill makes another less direct attempt at addressing global warming.

How do you decide what can and should be done if you don’t know the causes for the melting or you don’t examine the causes for the melting or the warming itself?

Kempthorne addresses her question with this response.

We have to look at modeling and the trend lines. Geologists would say that, in recent history — but, of course, geologists have a different frame of reference on time. But we’ve been through five different ice ages. We’ve been through five different phases where there was warming. Are we now in that again? Man is a contributing factor to that, but to what extent? And, again, that’s beyond the realm of what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be able to determine in this 12-month period. But what about the animal itself? How adaptive is it to that sort of environment where there may be changes to it. It is a very adaptive animal. What impacts might it have on other species? So all of this will be taken into account as we move forward and make a determination of what finally should be done 12 months from now.

Not being able to thoughtfully process the information Kempthorne was giving her and realizing that the USFWS has prior to this time, made the examination of the five factors for listing the bear, she pounds away one more time with the global warming question.

So it’s not beyond the realm — it is beyond the realm of you to decide exactly what it is that’s causing the warming, but it’s not beyond the realm of you to decide that it was not oil and gas exploration. How did you reach that determination?

During the interview, Kempthorne explained that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service went through a process to get to the point where it wanted to consider listing the polar bear as threatened. He explains it this way.

When the Fish and Wildlife Service went through the process of the Endangered Species Act, they’re required to look at five different factors. And there was only one factor, and that was the habitat, that is being diminished, and that is because of melting sea ice.

They specifically looked at a variety of other things — for example, the harvest of the polar bear by native Alaskans. That was not a threat. They looked at oil and gas, energy development in the North Slope in Alaska. That was not a threat. It is one single issue, and that is melting ice, acknowledging that that trend is now taking place.

I find it intriguing that the media gets so bent on getting people like Kempthorne to say that global warming is going to kill us all. This is very similar to when the same media was determined to get President Bush or any of his Cabinet to say there was civil war in Iraq. The focus is on terminology and none of it is on finding a cure.

The Al Gore followers of the world want to have us all dying in a few years if we don’t jump on the global warming band wagon. I know of very few people who wouldn’t agree that at this moment in our time we are going through a climate change. We all know weather goes in cycles and as Kempthorne pointed out, we’ve been through five ice ages and five warming eras.

The one reason that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave for consideration of listing the polar bear was lost of habitat. Their habitat is ice and it is shrinking. Whether the polar bear gets protection or not, we need to address the reasons why our sea ice is disappearing. It is just as irresponsible to claim that carbon dioxide alone is melting the ice as it is to admit nothing is happening. Man is influencing our climate. The question that nobody has seriously been able to answer, despite the media and some scientists claims, is how much is man’s influence and how much is natural climate fluctuations?

The unfortunate thing for the innocent polar bear is that politics will play a role in determining what should be done to protect it. The media will continue its onslaught of trying to trick the Bush administration into saying there is such a thing as global warming. Once they have succeeded in doing that, the polar bear will be forgotten.

Tom Remington

The hypocrisy continues in Wyoming. Officials there continue the practice of supplemental feeding of wild elk while at the same time the government bans ranchers from raising elk on farms saying it is unnatural to pen up elk and it causes disease and threatens the wild elk. Give me a break!

According to this morning’s Casper Star-Tribune, a new study shows, once again, that the rate of brucellosis rose considerably in areas where there were feedlots.

A new report shows the level of brucellosis exposure in Buffalo Valley elk has jumped during a period when emergency feeding of the animals has taken place.

The new report examining abortion and birth rates in the brucellosis-endemic area of Wyoming said seroprevalence rates jumped significantly for elk in the Buffalo Valley. Seroprevalence shows an animal has been exposed to the brucellosis bacteria but does not necessarily have the disease, which can cause ungulates to abort.

Officials are saying that the supplemental feeding in Buffalo Valley was a temporary thing and won’t happen again, well, unless of course the elk begin starving to death. But what about other places like Jackson Hole? Are officials going to keep feeding the elk there?

There are two things wrong here. The first is that if the carrying capacity of the land is such that it can’t support the number of elk in existence then numbers should be reduced. Hunting proves to be the most humane way of dealing with it. Other methods are to transfer elk to other parts of the state or other states in need of elk.

The second is the double standard the state exemplifies by “farming” elk to maintain artificially high numbers. It is my understanding this is done for three reasons – to keep the animal rights groups happy, to keep the tourists happy and to keep the hunters happy. Where’s the science?

Wyoming and Montana banned elk farming because they considered the practice a threat to the future of the wild elk in their states. If this is true, then why is the state practicing farming themselves. Authorities say that elk farming runs the risk of the spread of disease, brucellosis and chronic wasting disease are the two major ones. Time and time again, studies show that when elk are fed at feedlots, the risk of spreading the disease increases significantly. This is the same reason elk farming was banned.

So why does Wyoming keep feeding its elk and prohibiting individuals to farm elk? One can only conclude that it must be the government wanting a monopoly on the elk business while at the same time the money is too good coming from the tourists who want to view wild elk and hunters willing to pay to hunt the animals. Certainly science plays no role at all in this equation.

I hunt. I promote hunting and I think that the future of hunting depends on good sound wildlife management that does not rely on artificial means to sustain it. This is nothing more than put and take hunting. It’s time for Wyoming to practice what it preaches and finds better ways of managing its elk herds.

*Previous Posts*

Wyoming “Brucellosis-Free”
Rex Rammell Arrested, Again….Cow Elk Tests Positive For Red Deer Genes
Fanning The Flames
Idaho’s Escaped Elk Test Negative – Elk Ranchers Face Banning Advocates
Idaho Governor Calls Off Elk Depredation Hunt…..Sort Of
In Response To Malnourished Elk
Rex Rammell’s Letter To The Editor
Has Government Gone Too Far? More Escaped Elk Shot
What Do Malnurished Elk Look Like?
Idaho Elk Breeders Association Opens New Website
Bull Elk Shot Inside Rex Rammell’s Ranch
Wyoming Governor Asks Idaho Governor To Ban Game Farms
Escaped Idaho Elk Shot In Wyoming
Rex Rammell Arrested
Governor Jim Risch Defends His Decision To Shoot Escaped Elk
Idaho Gubernatorial Candidates Have A Say About Elk Farming
Rammell For Governor, Ranch Sold, Elk Still Being Hunted
Wyoming Governor Freudenthal Says Interior Department Not Doing Enough About Escaped Elk
Idaho’s Escaped Elk Now Getting National Attention
Idaho Elk Farmer Says All His Elk Accounted For
Idaho Governor Expands Hunt For Escaped Elk
More Elk Killed In Idaho – Some By Hunters
Idaho Elk Farmer Plans To Sue The State
Scientists Will Test Killed Idaho Elk For Disease And Genetic Make-up
A Helicopter, A Plane And 25 Agents Can’t Find 160 Domestic Elk
Escaped Idaho Elk Being Slaughtered. Wyoming Ordered To Kill Elk Also
Domestic Elk Crash The Gate – Escape!

Tom Remington

Isn’t this what all media outlets do is take a look back at the year we are soon to leave behind for another new one just ahead? I began looking at some stories last night and soon realized that my task ahead would be too time-consuming. Instead of trying to find what might be considered the top stories of the year, I decided to just pick a few things that kind of stuck with me over the year.

Let’s look at the funny, the bizarre and the outrageous first. Something I did just recently that was quite enjoyable, was to list 20 things that I find offensive. This of course was in response to a proposed bill that would require hunters to cover up their deer out of fear it might offend someone.

Who can forget the silly nonsense of “Rapid Honk“? Honk those deer right out of your way. And if you don’t want to avoid running into a deer maybe you could learn to smuggle exotic animals into this country by stuffing monkeys down your pants.

On the National scene, “Duck” Cheney was tarred and feathered for shooting his hunting partner but the funniest part of the whole incident was when he invited Helen Thomas, the cantankerous, old, Bush-hating, White House correspondent, to go hunting with him.

The legend will live on in the form of “Maine’s Mystery Beast“.

The one story, that really wasn’t my story, was the bear in the cornfield story. I had just returned from my Maine hunting trip and I found some photos in my email box of the bear that got trapped under the tire of combine. I threw the photos up on the site and asked readers if they knew anything about it. It became a snowballing Internet fiasco.

Going along with simple photos and short stories was the one of the guy from Idaho who went polar bear hunting and shot a half polar bear half grizzly. The antis wanted the man shot on sight but when it was all said and done, no charges were filed and he got to keep his bear.

Probably the one story that got the most of my attention was the Rex Rammell escaped elk story which has now blossomed into a lobbying effort to put all elk farmers in Idaho out of business. This story went far beyond hunting, ethics and the fear of spreading of diseases. It has become anti-American and a case of government control taking away the individual rights of its people. Stay tuned. This isn’t over yet.

In Oregon, the highly debated Cougar Management Plan got approval, Wyoming is still tied up in court over a plan to manage its wolf packs and the hunters are mad at the Pennsylvania Game Commission for allowing too many deer to be killed off.

New Jersey led the way for the most brazen, outright state sponsored anti-hunting attack by shutting down a court approved bear hunting season. Governor Corzine promised during his campaign that he would shut down the bear hunt and his puppet leader of the Department of Environmental Protection did just as he asked. The case will be heard later this year sometime in the New Jersey Supreme Court.

In Arizona, illegal immigrants are destroying wildlife habitat and the so-called animal rights groups and conservationists are nowhere to be found. In Colorado, the Rocky Mountain National Park has too many elk and they are going to spend millions of dollars to slaughter the animals when hunters would do it and the Park could make money.

Several states passed gun rights laws. The one that got the most attention was one called the “Castle Doctrine“, which basically says you don’t have to run out the back door when someone breaks into your home. Another that got some serious attention happened as a result of hurricane Katrina. Police officials under the order of Mayor Ray Nagin, began systematically confiscating the guns of lawful citizens in the city.

One of the most time consuming and in depth stories I did this year was interviewing Maine’s candidates for governor. I asked three candidates six questions that would concern hunters, fishermen as well as outdoor enthusiasts and gun owners. They sent me back their responses and I posted them and analyzed them.

I know I have passed over tons of stories that were of interest to a lot of my readers but these were the ones that stuck with me. It has been a great year. I have grown and the Black Bear Blog has grown. I have met a lot of people and through cyberspace have reached many readers who share much of the same interests. I have also run into some opposition and have been called some pretty nasty names but I guess that’s what goes with the job. I have never asked anyone not to disagree with me, I just don’t like personal insults.

I now look forward to 2007. I have no idea where this path will lead, who I will meet and what stories will transpire. My only hope and dream is that through bringing information to the readers, I can better inform, educate and instill a sense of pride in our heritage of hunting that will preserve it for the future.

Tom Remington

I sat in the sun just on the edge of the clearing that ran for several hundred miles, mostly in a north and south direction. The day began crisp with a heavy frost but as the sun crept slowly higher into the sky, anywhere the sun struck the white frost it wasn’t long before the white turned to wet and eventually evaporated. The air remained cool enough to hang on to the frost in the shade of some of the trees.

I was sitting on a power line. We see this many times in our travels and there happens to be one that runs through the area where our hunting camp is that I have been going to for over 30 years. We use the power line as a strategic advantage in hunting deer. We have learned over the years where deer like to cross it. Under the right circumstances, one of the camp attendees may take up a stand at a favorite crossing point.

It wasn’t my intention really to sit on the power line but when I got there, I decided I would for awhile. It was still cold and I looked for a place to sit in the sun. I spotted a stump about the size of my backside, calling to me. It was next to the edge of the clearing and completely engulfed in bright sunshine. I settled in for an undetermined amount of time.

I sat for about 30 minutes processing many thoughts as they entered my mind, not really paying as much attention to the task I had come there to do. I even took out my journal that I carry in my pack in case I want to record an event I fear I would forget.

As quickly as I glanced down at the ground and back up to the space in front of me, a young buck, a “crotch horn” as we liked to call them, stood only a few yards in front of me. He was as unaware of me as I was of him but I had the advantage because he walked out in front of me and not behind me.

I didn’t move. I gazed at the animal wondering how long it would be that he would stand there, vulnerable at a time when deer are the most in danger. I wondered if being so close he would smell me. I could smell myself after spending a few days at camp. My clothes reeked of wood smoke and bacon grease and who knows what all else.

We were at impasse. I eyed him as he eyed the opening he was considering crossing. My .308 laid across my lap. Any moment I knew he would bound through the opening and into the woods on the other side. But he seemed in little hurry to do that. Once I had had enough of playing games with this young buck, I spoke to him and told him to be on his way. I surprised him and I hope I also taught him to be a bit more wary if he planned on living another year.

To let the deer pass was my choice. The reasons I chose to let him go were varied but nonetheless they were my choices. I can tell you that none of my reasons were based on ethics. Some hunters wouldn’t have shot the deer because he was too young or that it was earlier in the hunting season. And yes, some hunters would have considered sitting where I was waiting for deer to reveal themselves in an opening as unethical. That’s their choice and I have exercised mine.

Nothing I had done was illegal, it was only a matter of my own preferences. I chose not to take that buck. My choice left me that season without any venison but I had no regrets. My choice!

We all make choices pertaining to the methods we choose to hunt. Hopefully those choices are all within the laws written but I’ve been around long enough to know that doesn’t always happen. Excepting those incidents, our choices are really based on hunting ethics and usually these are formed growing up. Circumstances can often determine whether a person will stray from their own ethics. Perhaps I can give an example.

I know my limitations with a hunting rifle. When I was younger, I used to hunt with a British .303. My father bought that gun for me when I was in high school for $15.00. I didn’t think much about it at the time but back in the late 1960s, $15.00 was a lot of money for my Dad.

The rifle had a peep site on it and I shot it often at the gravel pit. I got so I was comfortable enough that I would shoot at a deer up to 200 yards, if one was standing. One late fall day, I was hunting near the top of a mountain in Grafton Notch in Maine. It had snowed a lot at the higher elevations and I was wading through a good foot and a half of snow. I stood beneath a large hemlock tree that was heavily laden with a blanket of snow on its branches.

I looked uphill and through a narrow gap between trees I spotted what I thought was a deer. As unusual as it is in Maine to see deer more than 50-75 yards in the woods, I estimated after the fact, that this deer was stretching the 250 yard mark. I shouldered my .303 and my front site completely covered the deer. I would have no idea what part of the deer I was aiming at. I looked over the top of my sites and that’s when I saw there were two deer. One was a very large buck sporting a brush pile on top of his head.

Thoughts of where I was going to aim and how I was going to be able to locate a lethal shot vanished. As soon as I had deer in my sites, I squeezed the trigger. Both deer lived to see another day. Most of what transpired that day was driven by inexperience and excitement but I somewhat compromised my ethics because it was a big buck that I wanted to bring down. Did I break the law? Absolutely not but I could have just as easily wounded one or both of those deer and never found them. I realize this happens at times with hunting but a good ethical hunter will do all that they can to minimize that risk.

Where we grow up and what the laws are that govern hunting is the main influence on individual hunting ethics. I have discussed these issues before. The bottom line really comes down to gaining a better understanding of how others learn to hunt, the laws that govern their state and respecting their methods and tactics.

Should we chose to travel to other regions around the country to hunt, we have to become knowledgeable about the local hunting laws. We then try to find a balance with local laws and our own hunting ethics. For example, if I went to Louisiana where they have a season to hunt deer using dogs, more than likely I would not participate. I never grew up hunting deer with dogs and the laws in Maine prohibited it, so it became part of my ethics package. As long as the state of Louisiana believes that hunting deer with dogs is an acceptable practice, I’ll respect that but it would be pushing my envelope to compromise my ethics to do it.

Should I lobby to end the practice of hunting with dogs? It is my right as an American to do that but I wouldn’t do it simply because I didn’t agree with it. First of all, I’ve never done it so I can’t tell you what it entails. It would be irresponsible of me to propose ending the hunt without first completely understanding it and basing my decisions to fight it on grounds other than I don’t agree with it.

Ethics is a personal thing. I respect another’s ethics but I will not tolerate breaking the law.

Tom Remington

Yesterday I told you about a coyote in Palmer Township, Pennsylvania that had attacked a woman and bit her hand and a man who was bitten on the leg. It appears that a third person had been attacked also earlier that morning. Authorities located what they believed to be the coyote responsible for the attacks and killed it. The coyote will be sent for testing.

Tom Remington

I guess this would be proof that ducks really don’t need to swim in water. They can simply walk on top.

This is a photo sent to me by U.S. Hunting Today’s chief photographer, Milt Inman. Outstanding photograph.

Tom Remington