Idaho Senate Bill 1175

 Governor Butch Otter has been vetoing his way into the history books in the last week in an effort to get the legislature to pass some laws that would help him achieve some transportation goals. That’s not the end of the fight. He also created a panel of sportsmen, ranchers, Indian tribes and environmentalists to find ways to keep wild sheep and domestic sheep from spreading disease. Bill 1175 is another potential law that has the Governor at loggerheads with opponents…this time it’s bighorn advocates who object to the notion that requires state agents to move or kill bighorn sheep that wander onto federal grazing lands.

 It would seem that lawmakers should turn to scientists at a time like this. The big question? Do domestic sheep transmit disease to wild sheep?  Dr. Marie Bulgin is a U of I Veterinarian with expertise on sheep. “If there was good research showing that domestic sheep were responsible for bighorn die-off, I would be totally agreeable. The research is not out there. What we have doesn’t back it up by any means and I’m afraid that as long as the biologists wage this war against domestic sheep, they never will determine what the major cause of the bighorn problems are.”