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For the week of Feb. 2 through Feb. 8, 2000

Skinned and bedraggled in the Big Wood

"It’s a one-time event. If there were dead animals in the river constantly, maybe we should look at something."
- Walt Femling, Blaine County Sheriff


By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

f2coyote.jpg (21482 bytes)Four skinned coyote carcasses were found in the Big Wood River last Wednesday near Bellevue. Disposal of the carcasses, however, does not appear to be against any laws, according to local officials. Express photo by David N. Seelig

Four skinned coyote carcasses were found in the Big Wood River below the Glendale Road bridge last Wednesday, but no laws or regulations appear to have been broken.

Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Idaho Department of Fish and Game and Blaine County Sheriff officials said in interviews that their respective agencies do not deal in matters of carcass disposal in water bodies.

Nor is it illegal to kill a coyote in Idaho by any means or at any time for someone with an Idaho hunting license, Fish and Game conservation officer Lee Frost said.

"If an animal is lawfully taken, Fish and Game does not have regulations for dumping carcasses," Frost said. "We ask people to use some discretion, but, again, there’re no laws."

Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling said "We’re not going to deal with it."

Femling said the county has dumping regulations that restrict roadside littering or dumping tires or washing machines in the river, but they do not apply to carcass dumping.

"It’s a one-time event," he said. "If there were dead animals in the river constantly, maybe we should look at something."

Bob Ferris, vice president for species conservation for Defenders of Wildlife, said in an interview from his Washington, D.C., office that anti-predator attitudes in the West have dominated ranching sentiment since its beginnings.

"Predators, particularly coyotes, don’t have much protection in the West," he said. "We don’t think it’s necessarily a good practice. In most cases, it doesn’t solve a problem on a long-term basis."

The "perceived problem" Ferris referred to is that coyotes kill off ranchers’ livestock.

"Predators aren’t the biggest problem," he said. "Weather is probably the biggest challenge to wildlife and livestock. There are a lot of mortality factors out there."

Of the coyotes in the Big Wood River, however, no one may ever know where, or exactly why, they were killed. None of the agencies contacted showed any interest in looking into the matter.

 

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Copyright © 2000 Express Publishing Inc. All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited.