# U.S. Supreme Court won't hear game farm appeals MONTANA



## terry (Sep 13, 2002)

U.S. Supreme Court won't hear game farm appeals 


By MICHAEL BABCOCK  Tribune Outdoor Editor  October 16, 2009


The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal by Montana game farm operators over a citizens' initiative they claim amounts to an unlawful taking of their property.

The news means there can be no captive shooting of deer or elk in Montana.

Game farm operators earlier this year appealed a state Supreme Court ruling that said Initiative 143 does not constitute the unlawful taking of private property.

Robert Lane, chief legal counsel for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, said the country's high court declined the case within the past several days.

He said the Supreme Court's ruling leaves in place the Montana Supreme Court decision on I-143. That initiative was approved in 2000 by a majority of Montana citizens. It effectively ended the game farm business in Montana, primarily by outlawing the fee shooting of captive elk.

"Outstanding," said Craig Sharpe, executive director of the Montana Wildlife Federation. "It just confirms all of our work and what we have said and believed all along.

"The citizens were right with I-143, and it will mean something to us as far as the future of court battles," he said.

"I am disappointed to hear that," said Kim Kafka, who operates a game farm south of Havre. "I am kind of shocked."

Kafka, one of the appellants to the U.S. Supreme Court, said that during arguments before the Montana Supreme Court drafters of I-143 "admitted to intentionally crafting an initiative to take away people's livelihood and not pay for it.

"Even the dissenting judges said it had voter fraud written all over it," Kafka said. "The thing was intentionally crafted to take down an industry."

Game farm owners wanted to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court that their constitutional rights were violated because they were not compensated for losses stemming from I-143.

I-143 aimed to phase out game farms by banning the shooting of captive animals for a fee, the licensing of new farms, the expansion of existing farms or the transfer of licenses.

Montana sportsmen who supported the initiative said elk raised on farms  animals the state of Montana classifies as alternative livestock  could escape enclosures, mate with wild Rocky Mountain elk and produce unwanted hybrids.

Sportsmen also argued that captive elk were more likely to spread illness such as chronic wasting disease to wild animals. CWD, which is similar to mad cow disease, attacks the brains of ungulates such as deer and elk.

The disease has never been found in the wild in Montana, but it was discovered in captive elk on a game farm near Philipsburg.

Other people asking the Supreme Court to hear the case included Len and Pamela Wallace, who operated the Big Velvet Ranch in the Bitterroot Valley. They got out of the elk business and moved to Idaho.

Since the passage of I-143, there has been about a 50 percent drop in Montana elk operations, which once numbered approximately 90, Kafka said in June.



http://www.greatfallstribune.com/ar...S.-Supreme-Court-won-t-hear-game-farm-appeals



Thursday, March 19, 2009

Chronic Wasting Disease Prions in Elk Antler Velvet (Nutritional Supplements and CJD) 


http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2009/03/chronic-wasting-disease-prions-in-elk.html



Monday, January 05, 2009
CWD, GAME FARMS, BAITING, AND POLITICS 

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2009/01/cwd-game-farms-baiting-and-politics.html




TSS


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## Direwolfe (Sep 11, 2007)

So when are you going to get that on the ballot in MI? Maybe put it on the ballet with baiting? Electorates are loose cannons, be careful what you ask for.


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## 6inchtrack (Sep 29, 2008)

Direwolfe said:


> So when are you going to get that on the ballot in MI? *Maybe put it on the ballet with baiting?* Electorates are loose cannons, be careful what you ask for.


You would!



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