Alan Gregory’s Conservation NewsFormer gubernatorial candidate Rex Rammel, currently under investigation for poaching elk, told a group of Idaho residents that citizens should organize wolf killing parties and that he didn’t think the authorities would intervene.
Not so says the feds:
However, Bill Schneider argues that his heroic status is purely inadvertent.
Read the column in New West.
Here in more on the on-going story of the escaped domestic elk in Eastern Idaho.
After a series of confrontations with hunters in the special hunt to kill the escaped domestic elk, Rex Rammell was arrested yesterday after a confrontation with Idaho Fish and Game officers.
He is free on bail.
Story in the Idaho Statesman, “Elk ranch owner vows to battle obstruction charges. Rex Rammell says he called F&G officers ‘every name in the book’ after elk were shot close to his property”
This morning, the Idaho State Journal had a photo of Rammell’s elk enclosure. In the photo there was no vegetation on the ground and the elk looked skinny. The photo isn’t on-line.
This article was written by Jesse Harlan Alderman. Associated Press Writer. It gives some political background on Rex Rammell, whose shooter elk escaped and are being hunting down to prevent spread of disease and genetic pollution. Turns out he is an anti-government kinda guy. His political views seem to account for his lack of compliance with the laws (or is it the other way round?).
Of most interest to me in the article was the identity of one of his chief legislative supporters. Rep. Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot.
Another of his supporters, to no one’s suprise, is Rep. Lenore Barrett, R-Challis. Statement by Barrett.
Rammell recently held a news conference. Others supporting him spoke out. Story from KPVI, Channel Six (Pocatello, Blackfoot, Idaho Falls).
Barrett, a long time anti-conservation, anti-government legislator is opposed by Democrat, Jon Winegarner
Lake, is opposed by Democrat Beverly Beach.
Accused elk poacher Rex Rammell has his say in a guest editorial today in Pocatello’s Idaho State Journal.
Guilty until proven innocent. By Rex Rammell. Op ed in the Idaho State Journal
Who knows? If there is a conviction in this case, it might solidify my theory that anti-wolf advocates are behind the decimation of elk herds 😉
Recall, Rex Rammel is the politician who joked about “Obama tags“. He also had a run in with then Governor and now Senator Jim Risch after his canned hunt elk escaped and were shot by Idaho Fish and Game agents.
We’ve written about him here before.
Rex Rammell vs. the Elk vs. the Law
Boise Weekly
Former Gov. candidate could face charges for allegedly killing elk .
KBOI 2 – Boise
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Addition by Ralph Maughan. So this Karen Calisterio in North Idaho who just had a “scary,” but completely unverified encounter with wolves on her property was Rex Rammell’s campaign manager.
New story. Warden confiscates elk from Rex Rammell, plans to file poaching charges. By Rocky Barker – rbarker@idahostatesman.com
So far the elk tested from Rex Rammell’s elk shooting farm have tested negative for diseases or the genes of red deer (European elk). Not all have been tested.
The escape of his domestic elk was a big controversy a month ago and was covered heavily on this blog and in the main stream media. I won’t recapitulate.
Read the story in the Idaho Falls Post Register.
Wolves in the state have become an avatar, a pariah. It often seems that the hatred has little to do with facts, science, or the wolves themselves and more to do with a deep-seated hatred for the federal government that will take any opportunity to emerge. Rammell’s canned-elk, anti-government soap-box has blown over, now it’s become an anti-wolf, anti-government soap-box :
Rammell howls at Otter for not buying wolf tag – Times-News
After an audience member shouted a question about “Obama tags” during a discussion on wolves, Rammell responded, “The Obama tags? We’d buy some of those.”
Rammell’s Obama ‘joke’ troubles Idaho leaders – Idaho Statesman
Rammell’s got a lot of wacky history in Idaho. When his domestic elk escaped their pen threatening wild elk with disease and foreign genes, Rammell sought a stand-off, ballooning the incident into some sort of referendum on government and private property rights even as his membership in the Idaho establishment secured him special favors.
One of Rex Rammell’s escaped elk has tested positive for red deer genes for the second time, and so one of the major fears that prompted the emergency elk hunt was warranted.
Story in the Idaho Falls Post Register.
What Idaho officials say and what Rex Rammell says seem to differ greatly. Article in the Times-News
“[Idaho State Senator Laird] Noh wasn’t surprised. Rammell is a familiar name, a man Noh described in 2002 as a ‘bad actor’ who shouldn’t have been ‘legislated off the books’ when state lawmakers forgave some $750,000 in fines that the elk breeder owed to the state for numerous violations.”
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The newspapers are still writing about the escaped domestic “elk” which are being described as “elk/red deer hybirds.” Oh great!
The Casper Star Tribune tells more about how the Idaho Legislature let Rex Rammell off the hook back in 2002. Read Article.
Unfortunately, the crisis is real – bounties are being proposed in state legislatures, Wildlife Services considered gassing pups in dens, citizens are being encouraged to defy federal law and to kill wolves in both Idaho and Montana.
It’s lawless, it’s absurd, it’s anti-rational insofar as it’s a response to a real condition prompted by wolves’ actual behavior … But it’s perfectly rational politically – thus far it has been rewarded politically by both anti-wolfers and implicitly by some pro-wolfers’ capitulation alike – it’s a paradigm that will prevail under state management of wolves should wolf advocates lose the effort to keep wolves federally protected – because the sad truth is that in the halls of state legislatures, reason will have no voice.
Wolf-fearing ID lawmakers want emergency declared – Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — Wolf-fearing lawmakers want Idaho to declare a disaster emergency that could include enlisting local law enforcement officers to help eradicate packs of the predators.
Update 4/2/11: It turns out that the language being considered is none other than the legislation we posted in February.
Read it here: Final Draft of Idaho Wolf Legislation
Update 4/4/11: The wording of the legislation is posted here: Language of the “Wolf Disaster Declaration” published.
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