Rammell is set to lock horns with state

The former elk rancher filed a lawsuit against the government and will go on trial Thursday for a misdemeanor charge

By MATTHEW EVANS
mattevans@postregister.com

Get ready for Round 2 of the brawl between former elk rancher Rex Rammell and the state.

Rammell on Tuesday filed a $1.3 million lawsuit against the state for the

way government employees handled the escape of more than 100 domesticated elk from his Fremont County hunting preserve in the fall. Named in the tort claim are the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, the state Department of Agriculture and the governor's office, whose actions it said were "negligent, unreasonable, arbitrary, capricious and malicious."

The state has 20 days to respond. Government officials declined to comment Tuesday.

The lawsuit stems from an executive order that former Gov. Jim Risch issued in early September -- about a month after the animals escaped through a hole in a fence at Rammell's 168-acre shooting pen -- calling for the animals to be killed. State law calls for domestic elk to be slaughtered if they've been on the lam for more than six days to prevent the potential for spreading disease and polluting the genetic purity of the wild elk herds that roam the region.

Risch's order resulted in the deaths of 89 elk and 20 calves, Rammell said; it also forced him to get out of the elk ranching business after more than a decade.

Rammell, a retired veterinarian who lives in Rexburg, said his Boise-based attorney, John Runft, came up with the $1.3 million sum. Rammell said the figure includes about $250,000 in lost elk and "business losses."

"It's pretty hard to continue to operate an elk ranch without elk," he said.

Rammell sold his ranch in late September to a Californian, who said he has no immediate plans for the land. Rammell made a decent living by offering private hunting excursions -- clients paid as much as $12,000 for the chance to stalk a prized bull elk.

That changed in the fall.

Though Rammell over the years has tangled with state regulators about a host of issues related to his pen -- at one time, he faced tens of thousands of dollars in fines -- nothing prepared him for what happened in mid-August, when as many as 120 elk fled from his preserve in the biggest escape of domesticated elk recorded in state history.

Rammell was recovering from back surgery at the time and did not realize the animals had escaped until a neighbor had reported the incident to the state Department of Agriculture, which governs the 78 elk farms in Idaho.

Once he found out about the escape, Rammell said, he, his son and some friends worked feverishly to retrieve them. They would have rescued them all if Risch hadn't issued his order, Rammell said.

That riled up Rammell, who allegedly assaulted a young hunter for killing an escaped bull elk and was cited Sept. 29 for obstruction of justice after sitting on the carcass of a bull elk and refusing to get up when asked by conservation officers with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

His jury trial on the misdemeanor charge is set to start at 9 a.m. Thursday in the Fremont County Courthouse. Rammell, who's pleaded not guilty, said he is mystified that the case appears headed for court.

"All I did was sit on my own elk," he said. "It can't be that big of a crime. Our defense is that the governor's order is illegal. He has no right to kill or take my elk. Therefore, the Fish and Game operated without authority. We plan to prove the order was illegal."

Jimmy Barrett, Fremont County's deputy prosecutor, said he couldn't discuss the case until the trial ends.

Meanwhile, now that his ranching career is kaput, Rammell is pondering his options. Politics is one, he said, but another option arose Tuesday when The John Birch Society invited him to join its speakers circuit.

The staunchly conservative group, which describes itself as "strict Constitutionalists," would like Rammell to speak about property rights and civil rights, he said. The group will post his biography on its Web site, www.jbs.org, cover his expenses and pay him $500 per speech.

"I'm pretty interested in it now that I don't have a job," Rammell said. "I have a unique story. I doubt anyone else has anything like this."