The domestic sheep industry’s opposition to bighorn disease science has gotten to the point where some industry representatives have espoused denialistic paradigms regarding the threat domestic sheep pose to bighorns (Hurley et al. 1999; Hoffman 2007). Clifford et al. state: “Despite evidence that domestic sheep diseases threaten the persistence of bighorn sheep populations, the economic consequences of restricting domestic sheep grazing has polarized the debate, with some arguing that disease risk posed by domestic sheep has been exaggerated and grazing restrictions should be eased” (2009, 2559).
The document below presents some common arguments against the idea of domestic sheep being harmful to bighorns, and it features the USFS’s acknowledgements and rebuttals to such arguments.
U.S. Forest Service. 2010. Disease Review and Alternative Arguments. In Southwest Idaho Ecogroup Land and Resource Management Plans – Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement – Boise National Forest, Payette National Forest, Sawtooth National Forest. http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5238681.pdf (accessed May 22, 2012).
REFERENCES
Clifford, Deana L., Brant A. Schumaker, Thomas R. Stephenson, Vernon C. Bleich, Maya L. Cahn, Ben J. Gonzales, Walter M. Boyce, and Jonna A.K. Mazet. 2009. Assessing disease risk at the wildlife-livestock interface: A study of Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep. Biological Conservation 142, no. 11 (November): 2559-2568.
Hoffman, Nathaniel. 2007. Sheep vs. sheep: A legal battle over Hells Canyon grazing could determine the future of wild sheep and sheep ranching across the West. High Country News. October 1. http://www.hcn.org/issues/355/17251 (accessed March 4, 2009).
Hurley, Kevin (moderator), Jon Jorgenson, Helen Schwantje, Craig Foster, Herb Meyer, Amy Fisher, Dave Hacker, Harley Metz, Jim Karpowitz, Melanie Woolever, Dick Weaver, Tim Schommer, Cal McCluskey, Duncan Gilchrist, Jim Bailey, Bonnie Pritchard, Dave Byington, Dave Smith, Bill Foreyt, and Dave Hunter (discussion members). 1999. Open discussion – Are we effectively reducing interaction between domestic and wild sheep? Discussion in proceedings of 2nd North American Wild Sheep Conference, Reno, NV. April 6-9.