ONE OF RAMMELL'S ELK NOT SO PURE
Red Deer Genes Confirmed
By Bill Schneider, 12-16-06
All the testing and re-testing has been done, finally, in the aftermath of the Great Elk Escape, and the Idaho Department of Agriculture, regulatory agency in charge of the investigation, has determined that one of Rex Rammell’s elk definitely carried red deer genes.
The State of Idaho has ordered that single elk, a live cow that did not escape, “destroyed, neutered or removed from the state,” according to Ag Department spokesman John Chatburn, and that order is “currently being accomplished.”
After the escape, the Ag Department tested elk shot by state sharpshooters and in a special damage-control hunt ordered by Governor Jim Risch and the rest of Rammell’s herd that did not escape, which is standard procedure in such situations.
Idaho’s regulatory has a system to prevent such genetic impurities from happening, but this elk slipped through the system. Before a game farm can bring any domestic elk into Idaho, Chatburn explained, they must be tested for genetic purity. Ag department records show that this particular elk was registered and tested by a Colorado lab before Rammell brought it to Idaho, but apparently, that test was faulty. New tests done in a different lab, based in Canada, have twice determined that the same elk had red deer impurities.
Chatburn noted that 20 elk that escaped have not been recovered and are now listed as “status unknown,” but he could not speculate on whether any of the missing elk had genetic impurities.
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John Chatburn told me each lab blamed the other lab for faulty tests, but that his department had decided to agree with the Canadian lab's results. Seems to me this must be clear enough, scientifically, because I'm sure the ag dept would prefer that there were no confimred red deer impurities.
Bill
-Californiamontanacan
Personally, I don't pay hunt. I don't like that farms and ranches go this route for well-heeled clientele. But because I oppose it doesn't mean that it should be outlawed if the facts of generalized harm don't support it. Do we outlaw commercial hog raising because these animals were once wild? Also, the wild hogs and pigs we have here came from domesticated stock. The door swings both ways on the domesticated --- wild continuum.
Shooter bull operations need to be outlawed for situations just as this. The tempation for owners to mess with genetics because of the promise of more money is too high.
Even though this guy is bottom of the barrell, he still may have a case for private property takings. But issues like this only arise because of the complacency of regulatory entities, inability of lawmakers and citizens to realize what really is in their best interests, and the draw of the almighty dollar.