Crazed Bow Hunters Massacre Trapped Elk; WA State Shuts Down Archery Season Early�

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to mass murder, but the AR movement remains fragmented; fraught with infighting

and absent in so many situations where our support is desperately needed. A

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STATE OFFICIALS CLOSE ELK ARCHERY SEASON

 

By TAHLIA GANSER

SKAGIT VALLEY HERALD

 

 

CONCRETE, Wash. -- The killing of about seven elk cornered in a farm pasture in

eastern Skagit County has spurred state officials to close the elk archery

season in the area and angered others who either witnessed or heard about the

killings.

" Obviously, this got a little out of hand, " Dave Ware, state Department of Fish

and Wildlife game division manager, said during a phone interview from Olympia

on Monday.

Ware said the hunters who gathered around a herd of elk on Bill Johnson's beef

ranch five miles west of Concrete on Saturday " lacked discretion " and " took

advantage of the situation " when they shot dozens of arrows into the panicked

herd.

The state wildlife agency had opened elk hunting in an area roughly bounded by

highways 9 and 20, east to the intersection of 20 and Cape Horn Road. The

hunting season was created to keep elk out of the residential and farm areas in

eastern Skagit County.

However, Ware said the agency closed the season Monday afternoon on an emergency

basis because of the Saturday spectacle.

One neighbor who asked not to be named said the event, which slowed traffic on

Highway 20 as people watched, was a " testosterone-poisoned circus. "

She called it " savage and inhumane. "

A Fish and Wildlife officer was at the scene Saturday, but didn't stop the

hunters because they had not violated the law.

The property's owner said Monday that once neighbors spotted the elk in his

south pasture, the word got out.

" A few of my neighbors have friends who are bow hunters, " Johnson said.

The word began to spread until a dozen or more bow hunters were in Johnson's

field trying to encircle the herd, which by then had moved to the north pasture.

Johnson, whose family has farmed on the Wilde Road property since 1915, wasn't

pleased with the way the situation progressed. " The whole thing kind of got out

of control, " he said.

Other hunters in the area said Saturday's incident disgusted them.

" How can you call that hunting? " asked Bob Coombs, 70, of Mount Vernon. 'You pin

some animals inside a barbed wire closure then allow people to come in there and

take shots at them with arrows. Good Lord. That can't be called hunting. There

are some fair chase rules that any ethical hunter s to. "

Longtime hunter Walter Gillespie, 82, of Sedro-Woolley, agreed.

" I think it was an atrocity, " Gillespie said. " It's not a sportsman's way. It

sounded to me like a fiasco, and it was something that didn't have to happen at

all. "

He said the hunt wasn't fair, with the elk penned up and hunters coming from

both sides of the herd.

Gillespie said the worst part wasn't the elk that died and were hauled away.

" How many more were shot damn it, " he said. 'That's what bugs me. If one didn't

fall down, they'd shoot another one. The whole thing was like a comedy a bad,

bad comedy. "

Last year, some hunters were licensed to hunt elk in the area with muzzle

loaders. Some of the hunters trespassed on private property or took shots from

the highway, officials said. So Fish and Wildlife limited this season to archery

to try to prevent some of the abuse, Ware said. Next year's season will be more

restrictive, Ware said.

Skagit County Fish and Wildlife Sgt. Bill Heinck said officers would be in the

area this morning enforcing the emergency hunting closure.

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Information from: Skagit Valley Herald, http://www.skagitvalleyherald.com