Game farm owner swamped with takers for free elk hunts

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Rancher offers elk shoot for free.

Associated Press

HELENA (AP) – A Bitterroot Valley game-farm owner is letting hunters shoot his captive elk for free, saying he can no longer afford to feed them after a state law banned game farms from charging fees to hunt.

“The state has really defeated us. We lost,” Len Wallace, owner of the Big Velvet Ranch near Darby, said Monday.

Wallace is running radio ads inviting hunters to kill animals in his 500-head elk herd. The first hunter, a 15-year old girl from South Dakota who is terminally ill with cancer, shot a six-point bull Sunday, Wallace said. The ranch has been inundated with calls from other interested hunters, he said.

“There are thousands of people who are perfectly happy to come here and shoot these animals,” he said.

Tim Feldner, state game farm coordinator for the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department, said Wallace’s offer is legal, as long as no fee is charged.

Wallace said state game officials turned down his proposal to have hunters contribute their hunting fee to charity instead. In a letter to the game farm, Feldner said requiring the fee to be donated would still violate state law.

The Wallaces are among state game-farm owners who have filed a class-action lawsuit contesting the legality of Initiative 143. The measure, which voters approved last November, bans the shooting of captive game-farm animals for a fee in Montana.

The Wallaces also have filed a separate action in U.S. District Court, seeking a temporary order to halt the portion of the law that makes fee hunting of captive game-farm animals illegal.

Wallace and his wife, Pamela, were cited in September for taking money from five hunters in exchange for an elk. Wallace said he believes state game officials targeted his ranch because it was the largest in the state.

Ruth Thorning, the game farm’s business manager, said Monday that the Big Velvet Ranch had no choice but to offer hunters the chance to shoot the animals for free.

The ranch pays more than $300,000 per year to feed the herd, and faces a $15,000 tax bill due by the end of the month, Thorning said.

“This is a crop to us, and we needed to harvest it,” she added. “We can’t give them away alive, we can’t sell them as a crop, we’re not allowed to let them starve because that would be inhumane and we’re not allowed to dig a pit ... and shoot them, because that would be a health violation.”

Wallace said that when his herd is gone, he doesn’t have any interest in staying in the state.

“We’re going to move,” he said. “I want to move back to America.”

 

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Thousands respond to offer of free elk hunt,

Associated Press.

DARBY (AP) – For five days, Ruth Thorning’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Even at home – at midnight – the game farm business manager is getting phone calls from people wanting a chance to kill an elk for free.

“I’ve got six lines in the office, and there were a couple days this week where all six were lit up at once,” Thorning, business manager at the Big Velvet Ranch near Darby, said Friday. “They’re calling me at home, too, waking me up in the middle of the night.”

The ranch, citing a voter-approved law banning game farms from charging fees to kill elk, says it is going out of business, and its owners say they must eliminate their entire 800-elk herd.

Without the ability to charge fees for elk hunting, the ranch’s debts have been growing. Big Velvet’s feed bill alone tops $300,000 a year, Thorning said.

Big Velvet owners Len and Pam Wallace began running radio ads about a week ago, saying their only choice under the new Montana law was to offer the elk for free to anyone wishing to kill one.

The response has been more than they bargained for. By Thanksgiving, more than 2,000 people, some from as far east as New York, had called, Thorning said. On Friday morning, the phone in her office was still ringing. One day this week, trucks were lined up for a half-mile at the ranch’s entrance, the occupants hoping for a chance to kill one of the elk, she said.

“All the elk are spoken for,” Thorning said. “We don’t want anymore calls.”

Thorning said the week’s worth of killing has not been pleasant for her and other ranch employees. “We’re watching our jobs end,” she said.

“The folks who come out here have been very excited,” she added. “They’re glad to be here. But one of them told me after the hunt that she thought that my guides had a bad attitude, that they were surly. I said “ma’am, you are eliminating these men’s jobs. I don’t expect them to be joyous. I don’t expect them to have a good time with you.’”

The Wallaces are allowing 10 hunters onto the ranch at a time. They are escorted and closely supervised by guides. A veterinarian must test each animal for diseases, including chronic wasting disease, before it’s hauled away. The hunters are required to pay the fees.

Those taking part are not required to have a state hunting license, and the harvest is legal as long as no payment is made for the elk.

The Wallaces are among state game-farm owners who have filed a class-action lawsuit contesting the legality of Initiative 143. The measure, which voters approved last November, bans the shooting of captive game-farm animals for a fee in Montana.

The Wallaces also have filed a separate action in U.S. District Court, seeking a temporary court order to halt the portion of the law that makes fee hunting of captive game-farm animals illegal.

Wallace and his wife, Pamela, were cited in September for taking money from five hunters in exchange for an elk. Wallace said he believes that state game officials targeted his ranch because it was the largest in the state.

 

[BigDog]

Yes, it is quite a circus up here. I even tried calling to see how much of a fair chase it would be. But, it took forever to get through and then it sounded like it was going to be pretty much a slaughter. No thanks.

 

[songdog]

Can they sell them live?  How about we transplant them to some of the areas out here in CA?  Heck, any state who's out trapping elk to relocate could get a steal in this case.

 

[Passthru]

 He cant charge for the hunt but he could charge for room and board to those who do hunt,as far as I know a bed&breakfast has always been a legal buisness,so there just a tad high on price but its a quality stay. Hehehe
 I would like to see all game farms gone myself,if it cant jump the fence then its not the same to me.i realize that some of these game ranches are BIG though.