| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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Article 3/15/05 |
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| Test-and-slaughter
plan gets nod
By Jeff Gearino, Casper Star-Tribune
3/15/05 |
Elk
at the Muddy Creek feedground near Pinedale would be tested
for brucellosis and slaughtered if they test positive
under a five-year pilot project being drafted by the Wyoming
Game and Fish Department.
The Game and Fish Commission formally approved the project
Friday in Casper.
Game and Fish Director Terry Cleveland said the project
aims to remove elk that test positive for brucellosis
as a way to lower the presence of the disease in the Pinedale
elk herd.
The overall elk population would not be reduced to less
than 10 percent of the herd's population objective, according
to plans. Game and Fish has set an objective of 1,900
animals for the Pinedale elk herd.
"We would trap the elk on the specific feedground,
test those elk, determine age, sex and infections ...
determine which elk are most likely to abort and pass
on the infection, and then those elk would be removed
from the population," Cleveland told commissioners.
Cleveland said the trapping, test and slaughter project
should bring about a rapid drop in infected elk in the
herd. He estimated from 80 to 100 elk could be removed
under the first phase of testing.
The plan calls for blocking elk from private ranchlands
and access to traditional wintering grounds with a five-mile
long fence. A corral-like holding area will allow wildlife
managers to segregate, control and test elk.
The estimated costs for the elk trap and fencing have
run as high as $900,000, officials said.
Elk testing positive would be removed from the herd, loaded
onto livestock trucks and hauled to slaughter at a federally
inspected facility in Idaho, according to plans. Cleveland
said the animals will be butchered and the meat wrapped
for distribution in Wyoming.
The director said after five years, the agency would consider
whether to expand the program to other feedgrounds and
to other elk herd units in the region.
"There's no doubt that sero-prevalence (of brucellosis)
among the Pinedale elk herd can be reduced through a trap-and-test
program, but whether it's applicable to other herds remains
to be seen," he said.
But Wyoming Outdoor Council representative Meredith Taylor
said the group has "a great deal of concern"
about the test-and-slaughter program.
"This has raised a red flag for wildlife management
in the future... Test and slaughter will not take care
of (the brucellosis problem), and it will just be putting
a lot more money into a black hole," Taylor warned
commissioners.
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