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CapitalPress.com
February 27, 2015
Proposed limits on animal prizes worry cattlemen’s group
Bill would restrict
‘rabbit scrambles’
and similar events
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Proposed restrictions on
“rabbit scrambles” and similar
contests that award live ani-
mals as prizes have alarmed
the Oregon Cattlemen’s Asso-
ciation, which fears impacts on
rodeo events.
House Bill 2641 is intended
to prevent injuries to animals
during “scramble” competi-
tions, in which young children
try to catch rabbits or other
small animals to keep as pets.
Such contests also cause
problems after the event,
when the prize animals are
given to shelters after people
decide they don’t want to care
for them, said Rep. David
Gomberg, D-Otis, who intro-
duced the legislation.
The bill was inspired by
the controversy over a rabbit
scramble in Lane County but
Gomberg said he did not want
to limit the provisions to that
species or region.
Under HB 2641, animals
could not be “chased, kicked
or otherwise subjected to of-
fensive physical contact”
during the contest.
The event’s organizer
would also have to allow con-
testants to return the animals
up to six months after the
competition.
Violating the statute by
“unlawfully awarding an an-
imal as a prize” would be a
Class B misdemeanor, pun-
ishable by up to six months in
jail and a $2,500 fine.
The Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association is in “protective
mode” regarding the bill be-
cause the group does not want
it to infringe on rodeo events,
said Jim Welsh, its political
advocate, during a Feb. 19
hearing of the House Com-
mittee on Agriculture and
Natural Resources.
While the OCA does not
support the legislation as cur-
rently written, it would favor
a “work group” to improve
the language, he said.
Glenn Kolb, executive
director of the Oregon Vet-
erinary Medical Association,
said his group was also un-
easy about provisions in the
bill.
Specifically, the bill re-
quires that “minimum care”
be provided to animals before
the contest, but veterinarians
can only attest to the condi-
tion of an animal during the
time of examination, so this
provision is impractical for
event organizers, he said.
Also, the OVMA dislikes
the provision allowing the
prize winners to return ani-
mals for six months, as this
would let them shirk respon-
sibility, Kolb said.
Gomber told the commit-
tee that he’d be willing to
amend the legislation, such
as exempting fish from the
bill or creating a minimum
weight for animal prizes so
that “greased pig” contests are
not banned.
Sports medicine test holds
promise for cattle industry
NE Washington to
Olympia: Action on
wolves can’t wait
By JOHN O’CONNELL
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Capital Press
POCATELLO, Idaho —
Idaho State University and
Montana State University re-
searchers believe a common
blood test for evaluating the
performance of elite athletes
could help the cattle industry
better assess the dispositions
of livestock.
The project, conducted in
2012 at Nebraska’s Chappell
feedlot, utilized readily avail-
able, low-cost sport perfor-
mance meters that instantly
estimate lactate levels from
a single drop of blood. Their
findings have been published
online by Meat Science and
will appear in the journal’s
May 2015 print publication.
Blood lactate accumulates
when exercise, or stress, trig-
gers anaerobic metabolism —
when oxygen delivery to tissue
is insufficient to meet normal
metabolic demands. In hu-
mans, a lower lactate reading
following strenuous exercise
indicates an athlete is in excel-
lent shape and well equipped
to handle the stress of compe-
tition.
Michael Meyers, an associ-
ate professor of sports science
at ISU, reasoned the same, sim-
ple test could measure stress in
steers, enabling the industry to
breed animals with the most
OLYMPIA — A Stevens
County commissioner Feb. 18
told legislators that northeast
Washington counties may in-
tervene to stop predation by
wolves if state wildlife man-
agers fail to protect livestock.
“If you don’t come up with
a solution, we will come up
with our own solution,” the
commissioner, Wes McCart,
told the House Agriculture
and Natural Resources Com-
mittee.
McCart said later in an
interview that county com-
missioners have talked with
county prosecutors about
what they can do to manage
wolves.
“It’s not an idle threat,” he
said. “I have folks who cry
almost everyday because of
their losses, and that’s not go-
ing to continue.”
McCart didn’t outline a
plan of action, but he said he’s
been asked before about spe-
cifics.
“My answer is, we will
take the appropriate action at
the appropriate time, and it
will be legal,” he said. “We
know that if we don’t — if we
go off by ourselves — it puts
us in a defensive position and
vulnerable to a lawsuit.
“We will declare a defensi-
ble action,” he said. “We don’t
just shoot from the hip.”
With time running out on
this session for wolf-related
legislation, northeast Wash-
ington legislators are making
a last push for relief from
wolves killing sheep and cat-
tle.
“I can’t go back home
and tell people we’re not go-
ing to do anything for a year
or two,” Okanogan County
Rep. Joel Kretz said. “Social
acceptance (of wolves) in my
district started low and has
plummeted.”
Kretz’s proposals to take
wolves in northeast Washing-
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Michael Meyers, an associate professor of sports science at Idaho State University, visits the ISU Hu-
man Performance Laboratory to demonstrate a quick blood test used to evaluate athletic performance
that he’s now utilizing to evaluate the disposition of cattle, working in partnership with the Montana
State University Department of Range Sciences.
docile dispositions, evaluate
individual animals and monitor
how handling and facility de-
signs affect cattle stress.
Meyers, who also has a
background in animal sciences,
explained other studies have
shown stress reduces weight
gain in livestock and may even
decrease tenderness.
The industry standard for
evaluating animal stress entails
recording an animal’s speed at
moving through a chute and
also assigning a score based on
its behavior. In theory, slow-
er-moving, less-irritable live-
stock have a calmer disposition,
which should correlate with
low stress and tender meat.
“Some (cattle) just freeze in
the chute and don’t move at all.
We wanted to move away from
subjective scoring with human
error in it to some bio-marker,”
said Meyers, who is also a vis-
iting research faculty member
with MSU’s Department of An-
imal and Range Sciences.
Meyers is optimistic his lac-
tate test will eventually become
widely adopted as the industry
seeks to stay on the cutting edge
of animal welfare technology.
Jane Ann Boles, an associ-
ate professor of meat sciences
at MSU and the lead research-
er on the lactate project, found
a correlation between lactate
levels and chute score and ve-
locity. Cattle in the experiment
were also evaluated postmor-
tem for tenderness. Cattle with
fast chute scores tended to yield
tougher meat.
Boles said cattle with low
lactate levels generally yielded
tender meat, and animals with
medium lactate were tougher.
She was surprised, however, to
find animals with the highest
lactate levels were also tender
— she hypothesizes they’re ac-
customed to high lactate levels
and predisposed to quickly rid
their systems of it postmor-
tem. She advises high lactate
animals should, nonetheless,
be screened out due to oth-
er problems associated with
stress.
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Stevens County Commissioner
Wes McCart stands outside a
hearing room Feb 18 on the
Capitol Campus in Olympia
after telling a House committee
that northeast Washington
counties are preparing to take
action if state game managers
fail to curb livestock predation
by wolves.
ton off the state’s endangered
species list or transfer wolves
closer to Western Washington
to hasten recovery don’t have
enough support in Olympia.
More recently, he intro-
duced House Bill 2107, which
would require the Washington
Department of Fish and Wild-
life to reopen the state’s wolf
recovery plan and measure
the plan’s success by count-
ing packs instead of breeding
pairs.
Kretz said the plan needs
to be reconsidered because
wolves have packed his cor-
ner of the state, but not the
entire state. Until, wolves are
more widely distributed, they
will remain a protected spe-
cies, according to the recov-
ery plan.
WDFW supports the bill,
but it’s opposed by envi-
ronmental groups. Defend-
ers of Wildlife Northwest
representative
Elizabeth
Ruther told lawmakers they
should let the current plan
play out. A citizens’ advi-
sory group already gives
the department guidance
on wolf recovery, she said.
“We respectfully think this
is the wrong time for the
this bill.”
Researchers look at cider apples, mulches
MOUNT
VERNON,
Wash. — Qualities of cider
apples, consumer preferences
of cider and the effects of bio-
degradable mulches on fruit
quality will be evaluated by
Washington State University
researchers at Mount Vernon.
The separate cider and
mulch studies, each $40,000
grants, were among eight
grants recently awarded by
the WSU College of Agri-
LEGAL
Request for Proposals
Fiscal Year
9-5/#14
July 1, 2015 - June 30, 2016
The Oregon Beef Council is
soliciting proposals for projects
in the following areas:
1) Positive Producer Image
2) Studying Legislation
3) Education related to beef
4) Generic promotion of beef
Any individual or organi-
zation may propose projects
in any of the categories listed
above.
Projects must meet the Beef
Council’s mission of enhanc-
ing the beef industry’s image
of profitability of Oregon’s
beef industry. Approved pro-
jects must comply with the
Beef Promotion and Research
Act and O.R.S. 577
To present a proposal you
must complete and submit
an Authorization Request
Form by March 20, 2015 at
4:00 p.m.
Download an Authorization
Request Form from orbeef.org
or by contacting the Oregon
Beef Council office (503) 274-
2333 or via e-mail at
julie@orbeef.org. legal-8-2-2/#4
cultural, Human and Natural
Resource Sciences to study
agricultural issues.
“The cider industry will
gain a better understanding of
the impact of growing envi-
ronment, location and harvest
method on fruit quality and
whether or not these differ-
ences are valued by the cider
maker or detectable by con-
sumers,” said Carol Miles,
horticulture professor, lead on
the cider study and involved
in the mulch study.
Miles has been investigat-
ing cider apple production at
Mount Vernon since 2007.
Researchers will evaluate
quality of cider apple vari-
eties to look for differences
due to environment. They will
consider tannin levels, a bit-
ter-tasting organic substance
higher in cider apples and will
see if consumers can detect
differences in cider due to lo-
cation or harvest method.
In a separate project, re-
searchers will examine the ef-
LEGAL
PURSUANT TO ORS CHAPTER 87
Notice is hereby given that the
following vehicle will be sold,
for cash to the highest bidder,
on 3/11/2015. The sale will be
held at 10:00 am by
SAVEON TRANSPORT
4410 SWEET LANE, SALEM, OR
2009 Acura TL
VIN = 19UUA86529A018489
Amount due on lien $3,200.00
Reputed owner(s)
Shukri Diriye
Shukri Diriye
Capitol One Auto Finance
Legal-9-2-4/#4
Courtesy of Washington State
University
Cider qualities are evaluated at
the Washington State Univer-
sity Mount Vernon processing
lab. A new study will look at
qualities of cider apples and
consumer preferences in cider.
fects of biodegradable mulch-
es on fruit quality. Mulches
are used in orchards to control
weeds and preserve mois-
ture. The study will consider
migration of chemical con-
stituents from deteriorating
mulches to developing fruit.
LEGAL
NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING
The USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS)
announces a meeting of the
Washington State Technical
Advisory Committee on March
24, 2015 from 9:30 am to 3:00
pm, 316 W. Boone Ave., Suite
450, Spokane, WA. Remote
access is available.
For more information
contact Sherre Copeland,
(360) 704-7758.
9-2/#4