BALLOT MEASURE TO BAN CANNED HUNTS, PHASE OUT ELK FARMS

Idaho to Vote on Game Farming

By Bill Schneider, 3-15-07

Fortunately or unfortunately, the dust has settled from the Great Elk Escape of 2006 while conservationists lobbied the Idaho Legislature to implement meaningful reform on game farming and for a ban on canned hunts or as they are called in the Gem State, shooter bull operations. Now, in the waning weeks of the session, it’s abundantly clear that Idaho lawmakers won’t approve any significant controls, let alone a ban on shooting domesticated animals in small enclosures and calling it “hunting” or any legislation meant to reduce or eliminate game farming.

The politicos have had their chance and failed to even seriously consider banning canned hunts and phasing out game farms. Now, the citizens of Idaho should and will take control and do it the old-fashioned way, vote on it.

After the national attention given the Rex Rammell’s game farm in eastern Idaho, you’d think sportsmen and women in Idaho would have had a belly full of game farms and canned hunts. And based on many, many comments received on several articles I’ve posted on the situation, I have little doubt that most conservationists in Idaho, especially avid hunters, do indeed want to rid the state of the embarrassing and unethical “hunting” practices and eliminate the threat of diseases like chronic wasting disease leaking out of game farms and infecting wild herds.

But as all too often happens, our elected representatives do not represent the majority. That’s why we have the citizen’s initiative process--because we obviously need it.

Matt Compton, lobbyist for the Idaho Sportsman Caucus Advisory Council, told me in a phone interview that the only bill still alive in the legislature with any chance of passing is one written by the Idaho Elk Breeder’s Association. This bill was week going in, but is now being made toothless by forcing regulators in the state ag department to prove that a game farmer “knowingly” committed a violation. But even that bill might not pass because of some disagreement among elk breeders. Some want no regulation at all, not even the association’s own bill.

Compton said other bills were introduced into the senate, but they went to the ag committee instead of the resources and environment committee--and they never even got out of the committee for a vote on the floor.

At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the state legislature out promoting game farming as a new growth industry for Idaho. No doubt this could be some real economic development for Idaho. It happened in Texas, which has very little public hunting land. Game farms, large and small, are now about the only way to “hunt” in Texas.

In Montana, the legislature didn’t do the same thing. Year after year, for at least three legislative sessions, Montana hunters tried to convince lawmakers to enact meaningful reform of game farming, only to be beaten back every time by the ag lobby. So they decided to let the people decide, which wouldn’t be a bad motto for Idaho’s ballot measure campaign.

The Montana Wildlife Federation took the lead in passing a statewide initiative prohibiting canned hunts, transfer of game farm licenses, and the issuance of new licenses. This phasing out process allows existing operations to remain in business, as long as they didn’t offer canned hunts, but the license couldn’t be passed on in an estate or sold. This provision allowed game farmers, small business people like many of us, to take their time to convert to other agricultural uses such as growing cattle and hay.

Idaho should do something similar, and guess what, you heard it here first. That’s precisely what the sportsman and women of Idaho intend to do.

I talked to Kent Marlor, president of the Idaho Wildlife Federation today, and he said, “We’re disappointed that the legislature is not taking any effective action concerning canned hunts, but we are not surprised. We expected this to be the case. Sportsman are alarmed over the current situation with game farms, and they will move ahead to correct it.”

Marlor said that he wasn’t ready to give out details, but that correction will involve a ballot initiative for the November 2008 general election, probably patterned after Montana’s successful campaign. “I get calls every day wanting to help. The challenge is to get organized.”

He said sportsman will organize on a county-by-county basis to gather 46,000 signatures. “This effort will be broad-based and involve a lot of groups.”

One big problem for hunters in Idaho is growing apathy, a common problem with most citizen initiatives. Unless there’s a fire burning, it’s hard to keep people excited for the one- or two-year process it takes to petition for and hold a public vote.

Looking back, it would have been much better to launch such a ballot measure when the front pages were filled with stories of the Great Elk Escape, but that opportunity is long gone. Even having the initiative written to use as a hammer in the legislature may have helped counteract strong lobbying by the elk farmers and ag industry, but that’s now another opportunity passed by.

But those lost opportunities do not lessen the need, which is greater than ever as more and more game farms pop up like mushrooms in a mountain meadow after a warm rain. I hope a broad-based coalition of sporting and environmental groups can join hands, even those who might disagree on other issues like hunting and wilderness designation, and work closely together on this common goal. If this doesn’t happen, Idaho voters might reject efforts to ban canned hunts and phase out game farms. And then, Idaho will become a pint-sized Texas.

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