RMEF Warns of Colorado Wolf Reintroduction Ballot Initiative

[Irving]

Probably because elk don't kill other animals for fun, nor do they have a propensity towards attacking humans while roaming in bloodthirsty packs.

People like to bring up wolves killing for fun, but every time the same one or two events is cited. Not that it matters why wolves killed something. House cats kill far more animals "for fun" than wolves, but since house cats don't kill deer or elk, no one cares. Further, when it comes to killing animals for fun, nothing even comes close to people. Doesn't seem like a strong argument when framed in that context.

Elk DO transmit Brucellosis to domestic cattle herds. I don't know, but I have a feeling that the risk to the domestic cattle industry is a much greater risk than losses from wolves. Brucellosis started in domestic cattle herds, then spread to elk. It took 75 years of management to get rid of Brucellosis in domestic cattle and I can't imagine that it was cheap, or easy. This article cites immunizing every single calf against the disease. That doesn't sound cheap, but maybe it is. Anyway, now elk spread Brucellosis back to domestic cattle, which is likely a much larger industry than hunting, but does anyone care about that aspect of elk? Maybe ranchers, but you'd never hear about it unless you went looking for the info.

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/19/12/13-0167_article

Bovine brucellosis, caused by Brucella abortus, is a global zoonotic disease primarily infecting cattle, in which it produces abortions, retained placentas, male reproductive tract lesions, arthritis, and bursitis. In humans, brucellosis can cause recurrent fever, night sweats, joint and back pain, other influenza-like symptoms, and arthritis. In animals and humans, it can persist for long periods. During the 1930s, a state–federal cooperative effort was begun to eliminate the disease from livestock in the United States. From an initial estimated prevalence in 1934 of ≈15%, with nearly 50% of cattle herds having evidence of infection (1,2), the United States now has no known infected livestock herds outside of portions of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, adjacent to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. This area, referred to as the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA), also encompasses state and federal feeding grounds in Wyoming where elk are fed during the winter. Considered a spillover disease from cattle to elk and bison, brucellosis now regularly spills back from elk to cattle. Although bison-to-cattle transmission has been demonstrated experimentally and in nature (3,4), it has not been reported in the GYA, probably because of ongoing rigorous management actions to keep cattle and bison spatially and temporally separated.