Hoof Rot/Zombie Elk Trailcam footage.

[KalamaMark]

I don't think my son or I will be elk hunting around here this fall. I just pulled this trailcam footage yesterday and it just kills me to see the Elk in pain and suffering like this..

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[Spray-n-pray]

Wow, Mark. Thank you for posting this. If Weyerhauser is behind this, the got a lot of 'splainin to do.

 

[Mark W.]

If this was contracted from contact with an Herbicide then each animal suffering from this would have had to come in contact with the chemical. But if you look at the Maps of how this has been spreading since 2000 posted on line it is clear this is a disease being passed from animal to animal. Much the same if not exactly like various hoof diseases in domestic animals travels.

 

[jluck]

This is a sad deal but there is some proving to do. Just like video title states. Hoof Rot/Herbicide link(?).

We have has the skin disease ("Chronic wasting") in waves in my area killing off many of our Blacktails we also contributed it to herbicide(s) but no one with the means to prove it.

I know it cant be good for the animals and in turn us ingesting them.

 

[Brutus57]

Hmmmmm, herd cut in half in 30 years???? What happened upstream from Kalama a little over 30 years ago....Mount St. Helens, maybe some nasty stuff is leaching out of the ash. Clearly this should be investigated by F&W but that would involve cutting back on that new order of ACOGs and Glocks..... and you know that ain't happenin.

Brutus Out

 

[Jonfarmer]

Didn't it say it cut in half in 3 years?

 

[Brutus57]

Didn't it say it cut in half in 3 years?

Must have misread it, my bad.

Brutus Out

 

[KalamaMark]

If this was contracted from contact with an Herbicide then each animal suffering from this would have had to come in contact with the chemical. But if you look at the Maps of how this has been spreading since 2000 posted on line it is clear this is a disease being passed from animal to animal. Much the same if not exactly like various hoof diseases in domestic animals travels.

That's a very valid point, Mark

.

I'm concerned that the application of the herbicide Atrazine, along with others, may be weakening the immune systems of the animals, breaking down their resistance to the disease, which can then spread from one animal to another more easily.
Here's a report on Atrazine, which talks about the KNOWN issues with Atrazine and the immune system.

<broken link removed>

Weyherhaeuser just announced that they are locking the gates to the vast majority of timberland in Cowlitz County, and will be charging the public as sum greater than the amount of a hunting license and tags to access the people's game animals that live within their property lines.

That corporate move from a tree farm to an active, for profit habitat access company raises the level of accommodation we should expect them to give to our fish and game that reside within their boundaries.

 

[Mark W.]

YES but it is THEIR PROPERTY as in PRIVATE PROPERTY if Deer wandered around your backyard would you let me come hunt them?

And the move to close private property to hunters is most likely based on the expense of having people who don't respect the property on it. Everything from Off roaders to the garbage dumps that shooting areas become to replacing thousands of dollars worth of equipment shot up by morons.

The company I work for does a lot of work on roads (forest service, Private, County) in the woods. And when we have equipment that has to stay in the woods over night we have to pay someone to guard the equipment if we want to be able to use it the next day.

One of our retired Truck drivers will move his little travel trailer up to the area and then stay there 24-7 to make sure nothing is stolen shot up or otherwise messed with. In the last couple years we have had a half dozen or more incidences that have ended up with people being arrested for screwing with equipment.

So for a Company like Weyherhaeuser to keep track of the zillions of acres they own would be totally cost prohibitive. As a way to make sure that the people they allow use of their land they charge a fee.

A very reasonable business practice.

As some one who has never shot a road sign cut, driven off roads on private property, or left garbage at a shooting spot. I wish it didn't apply to me but I can fully understand that it has too.

 

[KalamaMark]

I own a tree farm. My family has been in the timber/tree farm/pulp and paper/sawmill industry for many generations.

I am well aware of all of the issues the timber companies face by allowing the public on to their land.

I will be looking forward to them investing some of the $150-$300 per head they will be charging for access to researching and stopping the chronic wasting disease in the blackmail deer, and the hoof rot disease in the elk on their property.

 

[44mag2ndamend]

I own a tree farm. My family has been in the timber/tree farm/pulp and paper/sawmill industry for many generations.

I am well aware of all of the issues the timber companies face by allowing the public on to their land.

I will be looking forward to them investing some of the $150-$300 per head they will be charging for access to researching and stopping the chronic wasting disease in the blackmail deer, and the hoof rot disease in the elk on their property.

I wonder about that atrazine product, everything sprayed on the land washes downhill, specifically Roundup and all its relatives. It mixes immediately with water then the environment.

I worked on a timber farm, full scale, and one of the conversations I had with the owners was about the cycle of the chemical industry on their farm.

1st the chemical company makes a new product, because the government banned the old one, to address safety concerns then sells it to the farmer.

Then the environmentalists and secondly government comes along again and says you cant use that chemical then charges the farmer for all the old product that he can no longer use due to its toxic repercussions on the environment and people.

3rd then the chemical company makes a new more effective product, that is most likely more toxic just not regulated yet and sells it to the farmer, cycle complete. Chemical company makes millions, farmer makes a small profit, and buys new chemical from chemical company. Government makes money off sales of farmers product, chemical company sales, and clean up costs from farmer.

I am NO-TREE HUGGER, I advised my boss to trash those companies and go organic just based on the cost of pesticides and herbicides. And the regulatory bullbubblegum, and costs in getting rid of all the old stuff that had been banned. The only problem with that is you cant ship a Christmas Tree across state lines without them being inspected as bee-free. Forcing the farmer to use the new chemicals that will eventually be banned.

The same goes for the blueberry business for the most part, just with other different restrictive bullbubblegum and the force of using chemicals in order for your crop to be approved for sale.

I could not believe my own government was doing this to farmers. With timber its a bit different as I understand it.

If you do your research you will also see a huge conflict in county, state, and federal with regard of use and disposal of those said chemicals. Fricken Bulltacos!

What a viscous game the chemical companies pull over on the farmer then all of us. I think the public is owed an answer on this one.

 

[2506]

From WDFW website:
"First reported in Italy in 1974, digital dermatitis now occurs in livestock throughout the United States and other countries, but has never before been documented in elk or other wildlife. There is no evidence that the bacteria are harmful to humans, and tests have shown that the disease does not affect animals' meat or organs. However, there is no vaccine for the disease and no proven options for treating it in the field."

I'm thinking it may have more to do with ever-increasing encroachment, interaction with wild animals and domestic herds, and maybe even farmed elk. Although I don't know of any elk farms around here. Raising livestock may be the culprit with herbicides making it easier for the disease to spread by weakening their immune system like Kalama said above.

 

[mikeybuck]

Stop spraying the clear cuts and start doing controlled burns like they used to.
Back when they did that we had healthier units along with higher Deer populations and no hoof rot.... but then comes along the libs from Portland who complain about the smoke and there allergies and things change.

 

[SRB]

According to WA dept of fish & wildlife, it's a bacterial disease with no known treatment:

Test results of diseased hooves sent to five diagnostic laboratories since 2013 point to infectious treponeme bacteria, which have been linked to digital dermatitis in domestic sheep and cattle. A 16-member technical panel of veterinarians and researchers, formed by WDFW to review test results from affected elk, has supported those findings.

First reported in Italy in 1974, digital dermatitis now occurs in livestock throughout the United States and other countries, but has never before been documented in elk or other wildlife. There is no evidence that the bacteria are harmful to humans, and tests have shown that the disease does not affect animals' meat or organs. However, there is no vaccine for the disease and no proven options for treating it in the field.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/health/hoof_disease/

 

[eldbillbo]

Weyerhauser can go and fly a kite with a hole in it.