Anyone heard of Game Department cutting off Herd bulls horns?

[markts]

Have a local herd and the biggest bodied bull has 6in stumps. I suppose it isnt a bad thing keeping him safe as there is 4 other branched bulls in the herd. Must be a gene pool thing I have never seen it before. Mark

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

I once heard a rumor about WDFW doing that around the parks and stuff to keep the poachers from shooting them. ?

[scoyoc5]

a guy at work was just talking about that...

[PolarBear]

Yep, seen it in areas where they transplant bulls to develop a new herd, mainly to deter poachers or the tribe (same thing) from shooting them while they are most vulnerable.  They did it to the bulls in the herd between Kamilche and McLeary when they first transplanted them.  The Squaxins were licking their chops at all the new elk.

[gasman]

4 years ago while hunting in the Little Naches, teh camp nnext to our had shot a bull, a big body bull at that, but the antlers have been sawed off to a spike 

you could see the saw makrs on the antlers and they were only about 10" tall. The marks were worn, so it was dome some time ago, but you could tell it was cut off.


I have heard of the GD cutting off the antlers of an bull elk when moving them from one place to another.
Example: Problem bull that keeps harrasing or eating on a farm. The GD takes the elk to another area and cut the antlers to see if the same bull returns (cheaper then a collar and does not hurt the animal).

[billythekidrock]

I have heard that they cut the antlers off to prevent damage to the animal and the handlers during the move.

[boneaddict]

I agree, they do it in transporting them for everyones safety including the elk.  I saw them do it for the first elk transplanted to the Colville a long time back.

[pendoreilleadventures]

They transport the elk via Horse trailers and they cut off th antlers so they dont hurt anyone or other elk when transporting them from one location to another. Also sometime elk will get caught in a fence or something and the game dept. will cutoff the antlers so the elk doesn't die.

[carpsniperg2]

i heard of it also. but not a great idea to do in a spike unit  not as many bull hunters as there are spkie hunters and now he is a spike

[WDFW-SUX]

I think its the lizard people in yelm that are doing it

[duckmen1]

good thing to do in some areas since the god dang prairie coons like to get a hold of the antlers and sell them to let the rest of the elk rot away
them indians think they are big and bad getting all their rights

[Bob33]

Have you ever heard of Elk #6/aka "Elvis"? 
http://ycg.typepad.com/yellowstone_country_guard/2009/02/index.html

And though my closest call with any animal is still two encounters with #10, big old #6 dominated much of my time every autumn as I worked to keep visitors at bay, and with great excitement, watched #6 tear up the grass, chase off intruders (four-leggeds and two leggeds), and on countless occasions, mash the front grill of a rental car.  His antics were so notorious that the park service ordered his antlers cut-off the falls of 2005 and 2006.  This was the park’s response to the thousands of dollars in property damage that #6 was credited with in two consecutive years. 

[NWBREW]

good thing to do in some areas since the god dang prairie coons like to get a hold of the antlers and sell them to let the rest of the elk rot away
them indians think they are big and bad getting all their rights

Dude, why that comment? There are poachers of all races. BTK your exactly right. That is why they cut the antlers, to prevent injury and damage.

[duckmen1]

that is true and i never said there wasnt
but i do know that they do a lot of this on the peninsula
cant help but talk about the past experience and i think everyone needs to know what they are doing
especially since they say they want to be like there ancesters
tell me one thing did there ancesters do things like that
then why do we give them so many rights
trust me i dont put the blame only on them but dont you think it should stop

[markts]

good thing to do in some areas since the god dang prairie coons like to get a hold of the antlers and sell them to let the rest of the elk rot away
them indians think they are big and bad getting all their rights

Dude, why that comment? There are poachers of all races. BTK your exactly right. That is why they cut the antlers, to prevent injury and damage.

Took the words out of my mouth NWBrew. This post isnt about race its about elk Mark