spectr17
08-12-2002, 07:08 PM
Oregon outlaws elk, deer imports
08/10/02
BILL MONROE, The Oregonian
CORVALLIS -- The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday issued an emergency order immediately banning imported live elk and all other members of the deer family except reindeer.
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The ban on cervids is similar to actions by other states as they rush to cope with the spread of chronic wasting disease, a brain malady killing wild deer and elk in the United States and Canada.
MADelk, an unusual coalition of hunters, animal-rights groups and the environmental community, asked for the ban, which passed unanimously with six votes. One member of the commission was absent.
Coalition members are concerned animals imported to Oregon's 15 elk ranches will threaten wild elk and deer. The domestic elk trade in states such as Colorado, Montana and Wisconsin, and the Canadian province of Saskatchewan is thought to be one way chronic wasting disease could be spreading.
Thousands of elk from herds nationwide that had even a few diseased animals have been destroyed. Chronic wasting disease also is spreading in the wild, mostly among mule deer in the Rocky Mountains, but also in white-tailed deer in Wisconsin.
The disease is similar to fatal brain diseases in sheep and cattle, including "mad cow" disease, which infected humans in the form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and devastated the British beef industry. The form affecting deer and elk so far has not been proved to affect humans.
The MADelk petition gained the support Friday of an Oregon elk rancher, Mark Rubbert of Bend, who said the industry is as worried as others.
"I don't want to kill my business or the elk I love to hunt," he said.
No one opposed the ban.
Commissioners also imposed restrictions on Oregonians who hunt in other states but who partially process the meat and trophies they bring home. Chronic wasting primarily affects the brain, so restrictions apply to parts of trophy heads.
The restrictions reflect similar laws for nonresident hunters in other states. Colorado and Wyoming are enacting new rules this year about handling animals in the field.
The commission's ban is temporary but will last long enough to cover this fall's hunting seasons. Commissioners also ordered the Fish and Wildlife Department to draft permanent rules, although Dr. Andrew Clark, the state veterinarian for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, asked for no more than a two-year ban.
In the next two years, he said, "a great deal is going to be learned about this disease. It makes sense to have a ban because it's the kind of thing that if we get behind the curve, we will have lost the game."
Bill Monroe: 503-221-8231; billmonroe@news.oregonian.com.
08/10/02
BILL MONROE, The Oregonian
CORVALLIS -- The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday issued an emergency order immediately banning imported live elk and all other members of the deer family except reindeer.
### ###
The ban on cervids is similar to actions by other states as they rush to cope with the spread of chronic wasting disease, a brain malady killing wild deer and elk in the United States and Canada.
MADelk, an unusual coalition of hunters, animal-rights groups and the environmental community, asked for the ban, which passed unanimously with six votes. One member of the commission was absent.
Coalition members are concerned animals imported to Oregon's 15 elk ranches will threaten wild elk and deer. The domestic elk trade in states such as Colorado, Montana and Wisconsin, and the Canadian province of Saskatchewan is thought to be one way chronic wasting disease could be spreading.
Thousands of elk from herds nationwide that had even a few diseased animals have been destroyed. Chronic wasting disease also is spreading in the wild, mostly among mule deer in the Rocky Mountains, but also in white-tailed deer in Wisconsin.
The disease is similar to fatal brain diseases in sheep and cattle, including "mad cow" disease, which infected humans in the form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and devastated the British beef industry. The form affecting deer and elk so far has not been proved to affect humans.
The MADelk petition gained the support Friday of an Oregon elk rancher, Mark Rubbert of Bend, who said the industry is as worried as others.
"I don't want to kill my business or the elk I love to hunt," he said.
No one opposed the ban.
Commissioners also imposed restrictions on Oregonians who hunt in other states but who partially process the meat and trophies they bring home. Chronic wasting primarily affects the brain, so restrictions apply to parts of trophy heads.
The restrictions reflect similar laws for nonresident hunters in other states. Colorado and Wyoming are enacting new rules this year about handling animals in the field.
The commission's ban is temporary but will last long enough to cover this fall's hunting seasons. Commissioners also ordered the Fish and Wildlife Department to draft permanent rules, although Dr. Andrew Clark, the state veterinarian for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, asked for no more than a two-year ban.
In the next two years, he said, "a great deal is going to be learned about this disease. It makes sense to have a ban because it's the kind of thing that if we get behind the curve, we will have lost the game."
Bill Monroe: 503-221-8231; billmonroe@news.oregonian.com.