I don't know if y'all are aware of the European origins and application of the word ghetto, but it was an isolated, restricted, segregated area, primarily of Jews, later with other ethnic applications, which carried over here in the US.
Well, the ever persistent elk brucellosis working group met here in Bozeman this summer, which I could not attend and document because of work. I thought it was going to me their normal bs, I was mistaken. I was digging through a bunch of legal documents this week for some contract work I had to finish and didn't open the FWP agenda for this Thursday until last night. I am too tired, I have been on the phone with a lot of sportsmen around the state, so I am just going to copy what I mailed out on the newsletter to explain what FWP is proposing on doing primarily to our Region 3 elk this fall and the future.
What is being proposed by FWP,
this coming Thursday, August 11th (agenda link), is just what I began warning about over 2 1/2 years ago, and our sportmen's dollars are going to pay for this unscientific debacle.
Proposed Elk Work Plan link. Think unethical German and Japanese internment camps that rounded up people even born here in the US, just because of their ethnicities, didn't matter how many generations had been born here. Didn't matter if they were patriotic citizens. Think political fearmongering Scarlet Letter "B" being applied to all elk.
Below is a map of Montana's Designated Surveillance Area, called the DSA. This is the area under control by the Board of Livestock to manage brucellosis. The DOL & APHIS have been trying to get the same jurisdictional control of our elk that they currently have over bison, even though there has never been a challenge study or natural case of wild bison transmitting brucellosis to cattle. So keep in mind the bison hazings around Yellowstone as you read this.
At the annual elk brucellosis workgroup meeting, towards the end, DOL brought up this elk hazing plan, which would take place from Jan. 15 to June 15, originally wanting lethal control measures to keep elk within the DSA,
totally IN the DSA, preventing them from going out and commingling with elk outside. Joe Cohenour, representing the RMEF on the workgroup, opposed this proposition. The work group, mostly comprised of ag/ranching interests then adopted this illogical hazing proposal.
Supposedly, this is to keep elk that have been "exposed" to brucellosis from commingling with elk "not exposed" to brucellosis. There are a number of scientific, logistical and ethical problems with this scenario.
- You can't tell by looking at an elk if they have ever been exposed to Brucella abortus, the bacteria that can infect mainly cattle, bison and elk, primarily from an abortion event.
- If an elk gets an infection, the majority of the time, they simply develop antibodies to it, an immunity, not remaining infected or infectious, they don't walk around being Typhoid Marys.The MT DOL State Vet, Dr. Marty Zaluski testified,
- You can test the blood to see if they test positive for antibodies (seropositive), but not for current infection. To test for infection/infectious, you have to kill the animal and see if they CULTURE positive. Too bad for the dead elk if they weren't positive, kind of like the old witch trials, sink or float tests. No one who is innocent survives the sinking.
- You can't blood test thousands of wild elk in the DSA, and again, an antibody positive does not mean they are infected or infectious, simply that they were exposed at some point and majority of the time have an immunity.
- There is no guarantee that some elk outside this imaginary boundary do not already test positive for brucellosis antibodies. Radio collar data has shown elk migrate back and forth between Wyoming (home of 23 disease breeding elk feedgrounds) and Montana.
- Unnaturally congregating these elk to remain in the DSA could increase disease transmission, including other diseases.
- How are you going to control thousands of wild elk to remain in this area and keep the supposedly "unexposed elk" from entering? Down here in Region 3, where most of this DSA is located, our 2016 population count was about 62,100 elk! And this hazing would be during their pregnancy and birthing periods.
- FWP plans on implementing this nightmare this fall - hunting season, as soon as they pass this proposal, which FWP is endorsing.
- And while the plan states, "DoL has no authority to prescribe wildlife management actions," that means FWP is going to bear the social brunt of this, just as YNP has to bear the result of the DOL and APHIS demanded actions with the bison.
On Page 5 of their plan, FWP states, And yet they are still endorsing this and will be using our sportsmen's dollars to do so.
This is just off the top of my pissed off brain. I am sure, just as soon as I hit the send button, a number of other bullet points will come readily to mind.
. Native species should rule the land! Let them roam wild and free. Manage them. You can’t control them.
