Wildlife Disease

  • Battle over Bighorn. By Sven Berg. South Idaho Press. The first in a 2 part series. These bighorn issue should be noted by all those who write about predators and hunting because it shows the ranchers are not just anti-wolf, but against any wildlife they think hurts their bottom line. I recall an old bumper…

  • Barker has an amazing story this morning . . . the “Cassia County Board of Commissioners voted to ask [Butch] Otter to relocate bighorn sheep from the South Hills near Twin Falls because of conflicts with domestic sheep.” Of course, Otter can’t legally order this. The Idaho Fish and Game Commission can. They are supposed…

  • Earlier, we ran an exclusive story that the livestock industry and various officials were having a secret meeting at the request of Idaho’s governor to counter the federal courts because they were insisting that sheep operations keep their disease-ridden bands away from bighorn sheep in Hells Canyon (Idaho/Oregon border) and on the lower Salmon River…

  • This article dates from 2003, but it is relevant because it is so clear the Western public lands livestock industry is not interested in curbing wildlife diseases, only exploiting them for political gain . . . even diseases that threaten livestock. The post above this one is on a closely related matter. Researchers say wolves…

  • Finally an essay how Montana and Wyoming’s brucellosis policy tramples on private property rights. By Glenn Hockett. Billings Gazette. Guest Opinion: Public, private property lost to brucellosis policy. He also points out the continuing frenzy over brucellosis  amidst the lackadaisical approach to other livestock diseases.

  • The headline came from an email sent my one of the folks who reads this blog. Below is a guest opinion from the Montana Stockgrowers who recently sacrificed their friends in the Montana Cattle Association on the false god of brucellosis control. Guest Opinion to the Gazette: Brucellosis policy must protect ranchers. By Steve Roth…

  • Gruesome work keeps FWP on top of wildlife disease. Technicians testing deer to see if chronic wasting disease is present in state.  By Mike Stark. Billings Gazette Staff. So far no CWD in Montana, probably a tribute to the  insistence by Montana FWP that wintering wildlife in the state  not be fed and the tough…

  • There is a rumor that top Idaho state legislators met today in Boise with the Governor’s office of Species Conservation, the Bush Forest Service, the Bush BLM, Idaho Fish and Game, and perhaps one member from the Federation for North American Wild Sheep to strategize how they can stop the spreading legal victories by Advocates…

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