Thursday, March 08, 2007

Idaho State Wildlife Managers Have No Luck Hunting Wild Game

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) - Wildlife mangers failed earlier this week to kill any of the estimated two dozen wild deer, elk and moose trapped inside a new hunting preserve in eastern Idaho.

Wildlife managers tried to flush out all the large animals last August before the fence was sealed around the two-thousand-acre enclosure owned by former Denver Broncos player Rulon Jones.

State law requires that those that remained behind be slaughtered now that they might have mingled with domestic elk and contracted disease.

But deep snow combined with rugged terrain thwarted hunters with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Idaho Department of Agriculture, and two hunting preserve employees as they tried to kill the remaining wild animals inside Jones' property.

Mark Gamblin, regional supervisor of Fish and Game's Pocatello office, says the hunters will return soon to look for the remaining animals.