| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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Article 1/31/05 |
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| Wyoming
doesn't warm to elk plan
Associated Press, Billings Gazette
1 /31/05 |
CHEYENNE,
Wyo. - Gov. Dave Freudenthal had a tepid response
to a suggestion by his counterpart in Montana to control
brucellosis by closing elk feedgrounds.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat who was elected in November,
made the suggestion in a recent newspaper interview.
"He hadn't been in office in Montana very long before
he decided to help me run Wyoming," Freudenthal,
also a Democrat, joked during a news conference last week.
Responded Schweitzer's spokeswoman, Sarah Elliott: "These
are simply ideas that the governor is interested in -
in exploring and having discussions about."
Wyoming lost its federal brucellosis-free status last
year after the disease turned up in cattle in the Pinedale
area. Other cases were documented in cattle in the Jackson
area and at a Worland sale barn.
The state must go a year without a new case of brucellosis
in cattle to regain its status and put an end to other
states' restrictions on Wyoming cattle.
Feedgrounds are blamed for spreading brucellosis - which
causes elk and bison to abort and can spread to cattle
- by artificially concentrating wildlife.
Brucellosis rates on feedgrounds average 30 percent, compared
to less than 3 percent among elk that do not frequent
them.
Schweitzer said feedground closures could be part of a
long-range plan to rid the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
of the disease.
But his proposal runs counter to the conclusions of a
task force Freudenthal appointed last year to study the
issue. The task force recommended keeping all state feedgrounds
open.
A near-term proposal is to capture, test and slaughter
brucellosis-positive elk on a state feedground in the
Pinedale area. But Freudenthal said he is skeptical of
taking that approach over the long term.
"It may turn out to be a tough scientific sell,"
he said.
The Wyoming Brucellosis Coordination Team recommended
a five-year test-and-slaughter program to Freudenthal
in a report published Jan. 11. State lawmakers are meanwhile
considering whether to build a $600,000 trap to test elk
on the Pinedale feedground.
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