Document text
Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Advertisement Email Story to a Friend March 2, 2006 Debating the meaning of wildlife It started as an effort to ban behind-the-fence "canned" hunts of captive animals, an ethical debate so largely unchallenged in Oregon that it made legal bedfellows out of hunting groups and animal advocates. But the fight to rid Oregon of its one and only exotic game ranch has become reduced to a technical legal argument over whether the pen-raised Ibex — a goat native to Iran — on Clark Couch’s ranch near Madras should be treated like a mountain goat or a billy goat once it comes to Oregon. Now it’s up to the Oregon Supreme Court to decide whether Clark’s ibex ends up legally lumped with the mountainous one or the backyard variety, with oral arguments in the case today in Salem. Couch owns the 2,200-acre Clover Creek Ranch that some hunting and animal-rights groups as well as the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife have been trying to close down since the canned-hunt ban passed in 1999. But today’s arguments won’t be about whether shooting exotic animals at a large private ranch is ethical hunting or a violation of fair-chase standards. Lawyers instead will be dissecting what constitutes "wildlife" in Oregon and which agency has jurisdiction over it. Advertisement Wildlife advocates and hunters want the ibexes, water buffaloes and Couch’s 11 other exotic species treated like a mountain goat and thus become subject to ODFW rules banning canned hunts. They believe that not doing so would strip the agency of its fundamental abilities to undertake its greatest public charge — protecting the public’s native wildlife. "We would have no regulatory authority over anything other than native wildlife," says Marla Rae, chair of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission. "This would throw our whole wildlife-integrity plan into chaos." But the 53-year-old Couch believes the law is dead-clear that the ibexes on his ranch are all "billy": cattle-like critters subject to agricultural rules and not wildlife and hunting statutes. "They’re saying any animal they think is wildlife that crosses the state line is the property of the state," Couch says. "Zebra, buffalo, ostrich, whatever. The federal government thinks of them as livestock, so why not in Oregon? This boils down to what is private property." A Jefferson County court and the Oregon Court of Appeals so far have taken the billy-goat view. Both have thrown out the 51 citations issued by the Oregon State Police to Clark in 1999 for violating the state’s canned-hunt statute. Both rulings center on the premise that the ODFW doesn’t have the authority to regulate exotics like the ibex. The Oregon Supreme Court likely is the last stop in this in-state case, and everyone involved believes the eventual ruling has implications far greater than just Couch. Wildlife biologists fear allowing exotics to be unregulated by ODFW could mean disaster to native wildlife if the animals escape and interbreed with natives. Red deer escaping and polluting the native elk gene pool would be disastrous and irreversible, says Ron Anglin, the ODFW’s Wildlife Division administrator. Already, mouflon sheep that escaped private pens in northeast Oregon have kept the ODFW from reintroducing California bighorn sheep in the upper Deschutes and John Day basins over fears of interbreeding, Anglin says. "It’s like scotch broom — an introduced exotic species," Anglin says of the noxious weeds overtaking western Oregon. "We can’t lose the ability to regulate or control different types of wildlife species that could easily out-compete native species." The Humane Society of the United States has filed a brief with the court, arguing against Couch in largely the same categories but for different reasons. "We got involved because we’re concerned that the Oregon Supreme Court could set precedent that other states could follow" and withdraw canned-hunt bans," HSUS attorney Jonathan Lovvorn says. "We, obviously, oppose canned hunting and we support the ban." Couch also sees this case growing into something bigger than whether the 50-year-old Clover Creek Ranch closes and whether about 300 to 400 exotic animals are shot within its 16 miles of fencing. He believes the ODFW’s argument would essentially grant ownership of the mounts of deer and elk killed outside of Oregon. It boils down to whether Clark Couch owns the ibex on his property, or the ODFW does, he says. "I told them, ‘I’ve got a bill of sale. Where’s yours?’" Couch says. Couch dispels the disease issues because there have been no documented cases of disease problems in 50 years of Clover Creek Ranch exotics. He believes the fight against him is more about power than disease anyway. "I think their whole idea was to break me," Couch says. "Their thought was that they’ll keep dragging this thing on to break me. Well, they haven’t." The state’s position essentially swirls around the Webster’s definition of wildlife as written in the legal brief filed by the state Department of Justice. That is, "living things that are neither human nor domesticated; esp.: the mammals, birds, and fishes that are hunted by man for sport or food." If the court follows suit, than Couch’s ibex and water buffaloes likely fall under department jurisdiction because of their potential impacts on native species. "I’m not going to argue with Webster," Anglin says. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Discount Hotel Reservations online casinos news Ashley Furniture HomeStore Send Flowers Southern Oregon Loans California Casinos GMAT Prep Windermere Van Vleet Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Online Casino Fundraisers Sudoku Online Casinos Canada Online Pharmacy Advertisement s