Grunter
01-31-2006, 08:29 AM
Associated Press
CHEYENNE, Wyo.
The Wyoming Department of Game and Fish expects to trap elk at the Muddy Creek feedground near Pinedale on Sunday for its controversial test-and-slaughter program aimed at reducing brucellosis.
The department will capture as many as 300 elk to test the females for brucellosis. Those that test positive will be slaughtered.
Eric Keszler, a spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said Saturday the trapping will occur early Sunday. The department has built a large enclosure in the area.
Gov. Dave Freudenthal's Brucellosis Coordination Team has recommended the test-and-slaughter program as part of its plan to regain Wyoming's brucellosis-free status. Without that status, cattle exported from the state must undergo costly testing requirements.
Several environmental groups question the test-and-slaughter program, saying it won't do anything significant to reduce brucellosis and only stands to kill scores of elk.
Brucellosis, a bacterial disease, can cause pregnant elk, cattle and bison to abort their fetuses. Wyoming lost its brucellosis-free status after a cattle herd near Pinedale and other cattle herds in western Wyoming tested positive for the disease in 2003 and 2004.
In an interview last week, Tim Preso, a lawyer with the Earthjustice law firm in Bozeman, said the state shouldn't try to slaughter its way out of the brucellosis problem. Rather, he said, Wyoming needs to phase out its program of feeding elk during winter months at 22 feedgrounds.
Preso's firm represents the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and the Wyoming Outdoor Council on the feedgrounds issue. The groups have written to federal land management agencies claiming that they never performed the necessary environmental review on many of Wyoming's elk feedgrounds.
The groups contend that concentrating elk at feedgrounds raises the potential that deadly chronic wasting disease, which already has a presence in Wyoming, will spread through the elk herds in western Wyoming.
Keszler said last week that the herd around Pinedale was chosen partly because its in the area where cattle first tested positive for brucellosis. By testing and slaughtering those animals that test positive for several years, the department expects to reduce the incidence of the disease, he said.
CHEYENNE, Wyo.
The Wyoming Department of Game and Fish expects to trap elk at the Muddy Creek feedground near Pinedale on Sunday for its controversial test-and-slaughter program aimed at reducing brucellosis.
The department will capture as many as 300 elk to test the females for brucellosis. Those that test positive will be slaughtered.
Eric Keszler, a spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said Saturday the trapping will occur early Sunday. The department has built a large enclosure in the area.
Gov. Dave Freudenthal's Brucellosis Coordination Team has recommended the test-and-slaughter program as part of its plan to regain Wyoming's brucellosis-free status. Without that status, cattle exported from the state must undergo costly testing requirements.
Several environmental groups question the test-and-slaughter program, saying it won't do anything significant to reduce brucellosis and only stands to kill scores of elk.
Brucellosis, a bacterial disease, can cause pregnant elk, cattle and bison to abort their fetuses. Wyoming lost its brucellosis-free status after a cattle herd near Pinedale and other cattle herds in western Wyoming tested positive for the disease in 2003 and 2004.
In an interview last week, Tim Preso, a lawyer with the Earthjustice law firm in Bozeman, said the state shouldn't try to slaughter its way out of the brucellosis problem. Rather, he said, Wyoming needs to phase out its program of feeding elk during winter months at 22 feedgrounds.
Preso's firm represents the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and the Wyoming Outdoor Council on the feedgrounds issue. The groups have written to federal land management agencies claiming that they never performed the necessary environmental review on many of Wyoming's elk feedgrounds.
The groups contend that concentrating elk at feedgrounds raises the potential that deadly chronic wasting disease, which already has a presence in Wyoming, will spread through the elk herds in western Wyoming.
Keszler said last week that the herd around Pinedale was chosen partly because its in the area where cattle first tested positive for brucellosis. By testing and slaughtering those animals that test positive for several years, the department expects to reduce the incidence of the disease, he said.