Wildlife Federation attacks elk-killing plan
Whitefish legislator vows to create private shooting preserve

WHITEFISH (AP) - The Montana Wildlife Federation has denounced plans to create a "hunting preserve" west of Whitefish where wealthy clients can shoot tame elk and get trophy antlers to hang on their walls.

Bob Spoklie, an elk farmer, has said his family plans to put between 20 and 40 domesticated bull elk on 160 fenced acres and charge clients as much as $20,000 for the chance to shoot a trophy bull.

Stan Frasier, federation president, recently wrote Spoklie's neighbors stating his group's "opposition to 'canned hunting' practices and to the game farm operation that Grant Spoklie intends to build near Whitefish."

The federation passed a resolution in 1994 stating the group's opposition to game farms, citing reasons including the "ethical hunting practices that a fair chase hunt embodies. Captive big game animals are not given fair chase during these canned hunts."

Grant Spoklie is the son of Bob Spoklie, a Republican state representative. The elder Spoklie, a longtime advocate of game farms, has said his family's proposed "hunting preserve" would go forward despite an outcry of protest from neighboring landowners.

"Everyone out there in that neighborhood can sit and scream all they want," he said earlier this month. "They and 500 others just like them can go out and lay down in the street or stand on their heads until they turn blue, but it ain't going to do a damn bit of good. It's going to happen, and that's all there is to it."

Neighbors trying to stop the game farm license say they welcome the federation's support.

"We have seen tremendous support from the Wildlife Federation," said Bill Hayes, a neighbor. "And we're receiving strong support from people throughout the community."

The federation's support, he said, will be crucial if the grassroots effort is to succeed.

In addition to ethical concerns, both the neighboring residents and the Wildlife Federation have argued that captive elk pose disease threats to native herds.

Although tuberculosis and brucellosis have remained relatively under control on game farms since outbreaks in the early 1990s, a new disease has the group worried.

Chronic wasting disease has already affected wild herds of deer and elk in other western states, and there have been indications that it may be present at Montana game farms as well.

On Tuesday, the wildlife federation asked the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission to establish a task force of wildlife and disease experts to develop a plan for dealing with wasting disease.

The Livestock Department is currently looking at that issue, but Frasier argues that it is a wildlife problem, not a livestock problem.

"We have little doubt that DOL is heading in a direction that will again trade Montana's wildlife for the private profits of a handful of game farmers," Frasier wrote.

Luella Schultz, game farm program manager for the Livestock Department, said her department is concerned with keeping strong relations with the livestock industry, an industry she says is fully capable of acting responsibly before the disease crops up in Montana's wild herds.

"This department is very industry-oriented, and this industry polices its own. It makes our regulating job easier," she said.