Article Last Updated: 03/26/2005 01:35:59 AM

Wildlife in hunting preserve will be killed
Tribune Staff and Wire Services


EDEN, Utah - Wildlife that wandered into the private hunting preserve of former Denver Broncos lineman Rulon Jones will have to be killed, officials from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources said.
Fearing the wild animals may have contracted chronic wasting disease from the domestic herd, DWR officials are taking no chances and have ordered the 23 deer and one elk to be killed and tested for the disease.
Two moose on the property will be herded off the hunting preserve because they are less susceptible to the disease.
Nearly every elk that dies on Jones' ranch is tested for chronic wasting disease - a fatal malady affecting the nervous system of big game animals - and none have tested positive.
The wild animals crossed a snow bridge into Jones' Broadmouth Canyon Ranch in Ogden Valley and came in contact with Jones' domestic elk. Jones has a responsibility as a hunting-preserve owner to ensure that his domestic herd can't escape and wild animals can't get into the preserve.
This is the second consecutive winter that fences on domestic hunting preserves have been breached.
Two hunters killed bull elk with domestic elk tags in their ears last October on the Royal Rut Hunting Preserve north or Price.
Robert Hasenyager, northern regional manager of DWR, is asking the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF), which oversees domestic elk ranches and hunting preserves, to require Jones to pay for the lost animals.
State law places the restitution
value of deer, elk and moose at $400, $750 and $1,000, respectively.
Terry Menlove, chief livestock inspector for UDAF, contends the killings are unnecessary.
''We don't think it's necessary, and we have expressed that to them [DWR],'' Menlove said. ''In a work-together manner, we are hoping they will revisit that policy [in the future].''
Alan Clark, deputy director of DWR, said a plan being developed to standardize U.S. Department of Agriculture testing requirements may be what it takes to get the policy changed.
''When we become sure that none of those animals are diseased, then we'll relax the policy that says that animals that go in come out dead,'' Clark said. Meanwhile, there is still a breach in Jones' property.
''Until such a time as [the fence] is secured,'' Hasenyager said, ''we're going to have some concerns.''
Jones is required to make permanent improvements to the fence.

I think he should pay the $5000/animal that the DWR is supposed to be fining him as well as having all his animals shot and killed.

Jones' has had ongoing pissing matches with Government agencies for several years. He built one or more building with out a building permit and was in the paper for serveral weeks as the county tried to decide what to have him do with the buildings. They suggested tearing them down sinc ethey were not inspected during the building process.

I don't know the man, nor have I been up to his place, but he seems to get a lot of press in the papers for always rebelling against the system and pushing the limits of those who enforce the rules.

Utah DWR is working hard to keep CWD out of the state. The disease has not shown up in most of the native population of animals. Just a couple near the Colorado border. Ranch raised animals are one of the greatest threats to bringing the disease into the state. So I have no problem with the DWR position.

I'm not sure why the article references the Royal Rut hunting perserve. It's hours away from Jones' place. And no way possible that the elk shot near it came from Jones' property. I guess it just is thrown in to show that private hunting ranches are not complying with the fence rules.

Couldn't care less about his building activities but I'd think it a good idea to eliminate his private preserve herd and for that matter all such activities in the US. It's a bad idea that will bite us in the ass one of these day. Of course, maybe it already has.

DD-Just curious, why do you think all such activities should be eliminated? (Fenced wildlife ranches)

IV