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Emaciated bighorn takes refuge in house
Associated Press
JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) - An emaciated bighorn sheep was destroyed after workers found it taking refuge in the master bedroom of a home being built near Jackson Hole Airport.
A construction foreman found the sheep the morning of Nov. 24.
The sheep possibly entered through the garage, which was not yet closed off, said homeowner Diane Lyman.
Construction workers lassoed the sheep's horns and tied it to a post while Lyman called for help. "They didn't want her running around the site because she could have hurt herself," Lyman said.
Game and Fish Department spokesman Mark Gocke said it is illegal to restrain wildlife and people should not try to catch a wild animal because they might end up harming it.
But he said the department will not cite the workers because of their concerns about working in the house with a skittish sheep.
"We can't fault these people," he said. "It was a safety issue."
Still, he said, if people can get close enough to a big game animal to rope it, there is probably something wrong and people should probably keep away from the animal.
Game and Fish workers arrived at the home about an hour after the sheep had been restrained. The department had been getting calls for a few days about a bighorn sheep that had been frequenting the area.
The sheep was killed out of concern it could spread disease to other bighorns and because it probably would not survive the winter, anyway. Gocke said the carcass will be tested for disease.
Officials suspect the 2-year-old ewe was a holdover from a pneumonia outbreak that has killed an estimated 40 percent to 60 percent of the Gros Ventre herd, which had numbered about 500.
Bighorn sheep are usually more shy near humans than other species such as moose, deer and elk. "It's even more unusual that a sheep would wander around a residential area," Gocke said.
Associated Press
JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) - An emaciated bighorn sheep was destroyed after workers found it taking refuge in the master bedroom of a home being built near Jackson Hole Airport.
A construction foreman found the sheep the morning of Nov. 24.
The sheep possibly entered through the garage, which was not yet closed off, said homeowner Diane Lyman.
Construction workers lassoed the sheep's horns and tied it to a post while Lyman called for help. "They didn't want her running around the site because she could have hurt herself," Lyman said.
Game and Fish Department spokesman Mark Gocke said it is illegal to restrain wildlife and people should not try to catch a wild animal because they might end up harming it.
But he said the department will not cite the workers because of their concerns about working in the house with a skittish sheep.
"We can't fault these people," he said. "It was a safety issue."
Still, he said, if people can get close enough to a big game animal to rope it, there is probably something wrong and people should probably keep away from the animal.
Game and Fish workers arrived at the home about an hour after the sheep had been restrained. The department had been getting calls for a few days about a bighorn sheep that had been frequenting the area.
The sheep was killed out of concern it could spread disease to other bighorns and because it probably would not survive the winter, anyway. Gocke said the carcass will be tested for disease.
Officials suspect the 2-year-old ewe was a holdover from a pneumonia outbreak that has killed an estimated 40 percent to 60 percent of the Gros Ventre herd, which had numbered about 500.
Bighorn sheep are usually more shy near humans than other species such as moose, deer and elk. "It's even more unusual that a sheep would wander around a residential area," Gocke said.
