Predictions re: wolves wiping out elk have been around for 20 years in Wyoming, but wolves are obviously no threat. Elk numbers keep growing.

In all the concern re: elk, one doomsday scenario is real — the relentless spread of ALWAYS lethal chronic wasting disease (CWD). The Wyoming state government has found itself politically incapable of taking action to halt CWD’s advance, the disease has crept to just nine miles from Yellowstone Park. Science tells us that winter feedgrounds are hotbeds for disease transmission. Thus the most important thing that should be done to save elk is to shut the ill-conceived and outdated feedground system down.

The biggest irony is that when wolves killed 19 elk at an elk feedground last month, not only did the media miss the bigger story, they pegged the very agents who can help save elk the villains. Wolves and their proclivity to kill sick elk, are the only thing in Wyoming holding back CWD, the very thing threatening to doom the prey species.

More via Wolves kill 19 sick elk in Wyoming, an opinion piece by Dr. Ralph Maughan for the Idaho State Journal.