Anyone hear about a controlled mass kill of bull elk due to Blue Tongue?

[bigroj]

I was hunting down in Morton/Randle/Packwood area over the last 5 days and it's been SCARCE (unless you're driving through Packwood and actually have to avoid the elk walking the neighborhoods). 

I talked to someone who said there were 600+ bulls destroyed due to illness.  I can't believe something like this could happen and not be CLEARLY posted somewhere.  We spend a lot of money on hunts to not be told something like this.

By the looks of it out in the field, I wouldn't be surprised.  I hiked/hunted over 25 miles and didn't see one animal.  I've hunted for 20+ years and never had this happen.  I hunted from river bottoms to mountain peaks...very little sign, too.  I even talked to a local business owner in Morton who said he'd only seen/heard of 3 elk taken as of Monday compared to well over 50 the previous year. 

It hurts to get skunked, but it hurts even worse to not see a thing, well, unless you consider the cougar I saw at 4:00am when I was "marking" my territory in front of my cabin.   

[buckfvr]

I would venture to guess that is not true....blue tongue in that area would be highly unlikely unless they experienced a record dry hot summer where over night temps remained above 55 degrees and the animals were forced to drink standing/stagnant water for an extended period of time.   

[bigroj]

Thanks, buckfvr.  It's going to be interesting to check this years' harvest records over previous years.  Do you think they would do something like this for any other disease/virus?

[runamuk]

ahhh old rumor even discussed at the Dec 2013 meeting see the minutes

http://wdfw.wa.gov/about/advisory/ehd/minutes_120413_EHD.pdf

Mark Smith
(MS) said that he only saw one cow this season and it has hoof disease. He
also addressed the rumor that WDFW killed 600 elk. He feels that rumors need to be
addressed

[buckfvr]

Blue tongue is usually fatal, sooner than later, and there would be no reason to execute sick animals.......

Rumors about hoof rot leading to killing elk certainly has circulated, but aside fro chronic wasting, Id be surprised to hear about any of it before hand....

[pianoman9701]

Rumors about hoof rot? They're more than rumors. I'll be really interested to see harvest figures for St. Helens and Willapa this year, as well as the culling numbers from the post-season slaughter. I don't believe St. Helens will still be the state's largest herd after this year.

[bigroj]

Thanks, runamuk.  Even though they didn't address it specifically, I guess they called it a "rumor". 

[buckfvr]

Rumors about hoof rot LEADING TO KILLING ELK.  As in wdfw killing off herds or parts of herds..................

[pianoman9701]

Rumors about hoof rot LEADING TO KILLING ELK.  As in wdfw killing off herds or parts of herds..................

No longer a rumor. The Elk hoof disease group announced in August that they'd start killing affected elk after hunting season this year. I was personally encouraged by Jerry (Gerry?) Nelson to consider joining the effort once they commence the killing.

[Elkrunner]

Would there even be 600+ bulls in that area?