Wallowa County Chieftain
News
wallowa.com
June 8, 2016
Child transported to Boise
hospital after water accident
By Kathleen Ellyn
Sen. Ron Wyden
receives award at
Wallowa town hall
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa County Chieftain
The Joseph Fire Depart-
ment received an alert Sat-
urday morning regarding a
boy who had been in the river
near Wallowa Lake Marina
and “possibly wasn’t do-
ing good,” according to Fire
Chief Jeffery Wecks.
Emergency vehicles re-
sponded to assist the boy,
who is believed to be about
age 7.
Wecks said the department
was not involved in life-sav-
ing procedures but was asked
to set up a landing site for
the Life Flight helicopter that
transported the child to Saint
Alphonsus Regional Medical
Center in Boise.
Wecks said it was his un-
derstanding that the child
was “alert and crying” in the
helicopter.
Oficials at Wallowa Me-
morial Hospital were unable
to provide any information
on the situation.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
was honored with a 2016
Congressional Partnership
Award during a town hall
meeting in Wallowa on
Tuesday. The award is from
the National Association of
Development Organizations
(NADO) for outstanding
leadership in promoting fed-
eral support of community,
economic and infrastructure
development programs. The
Northeast Oregon Econom-
ic Development District
(NEOEDD) in Enterprise
nominated Sen. Wyden for
the award.
The biennial award recog-
nizes members of Congress
who have displayed strong
support of regional devel-
opment policies. Recipients
were selected based on their
support of NADO’s national
legislative priorities, which
include funding for commu-
nity and economic develop-
ment as well as support for
the work of regional devel-
opment organizations at the
local level.
Some of the programs
supported at the federal lev-
el that are managed by the
Courtesy of Doug Dutton
A child is transported by a Life Flight helicopter Saturday morning near Wallowa Lake Marina.
14 stock dogs poisoned with strychnine
Gopher pellets
mixed with raw
ground meat
By Sean Ellis
EO Media Group
CANYON COUNTY, Ida-
ho — Fourteen stock and guard
dogs have been poisoned with
strychnine in this part of south-
western Idaho since early April
and 12 have died.
The poisoning of the dogs,
which are used to guard and
shepherd sheep and goats, has
occurred over several weeks.
“We lost another dog today.
The poisoning is still going
on,” the dogs’ owner, Casey
Echevarria, told Capital Press
May 30.
The dogs were intentionally
poisoned with strychnine, said
Dr. Brent Varriale, a Fruitland
veterinarian who examined
three of them. He said they had
large amounts of green dyed
grain in their stomachs, which
is consistent with gopher bait
that contains strychnine.
The gopher bait was mixed
with a signiicant amount
of raw ground meat and the
amount of bait found in each
dog would have required mix-
ing it with food to encourage
the dogs to eat as much of it as
they did, he said.
Varriale said he examines
dogs that have consumed go-
pher bait and suffered strych-
nine poisoning about once ev-
ery few years and they never
have that much of the bait in
their stomachs.
The large number of Eche-
varria’s dogs that have suf-
fered strychnine poisoning this
spring, coupled with the large
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Coyote, an Anatolian shepherding dog, guard goats in
southwestern Idaho May 16. Someone has poisoned 14 stock
and guard dogs with strychnine in this area since early April.
amount of bait found in their
stomaches, “tells me it was
done intentionally,” Varriale
said.
Varriale saved and froze
stomach content samples from
each dog and contacted the
Canyon County Sheriff’s De-
partment, which investigated
the incidents but has not iden-
tiied any suspects.
Varriale said strychnine
poisoning is a bad way to die
because it causes paralysis so
the dogs can’t breathe and they
suffocate to death.
“They may not catch the
person that did it but I hope it
at least ... prevents it from con-
tinuing,” he said of the reason
he contacted law enforcement.
“It’s a terrible way to die.”
Echevarria said the dogs
cost him between $1,500 to
$2,500 each and although the
poisonings have cost his oper-
ation a lot of money, he’s more
concerned about the dogs’ suf-
fering.
“This does piss me off,” he
said. “The way they’ve done
it is more cruel than shooting
C at c h
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541-432-4940
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Connection available from Wallowa/Lostine
New
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for veterans medical appointments in La Grande.
• Mealsite Bus ~ providing transportation to Senior Center
for lunch ~ Cost $1 round trip.
them with a gun. I don’t want
publicity for me. It’s more
about getting the word out there
so it doesn’t happen to (any
more) dogs.”
The poisonings have drawn
the attention of Idaho’s Hu-
mane Society of the United
States branch.
“This should be publicized,”
said HSUS Idaho Director Lisa
Kauffman. “Strychnine poi-
soning is a really horrible way
to go. That is an excruciating
death for those dogs.”
Idaho’s animal abuse felony
law, which was strengthened
this year, does not apply to
these incidents, Kauffman said,
because production agricul-
ture animals, which include
stock and working dogs, are
speciically exempt.
A3
local NEOEDD include the
Individual Development Ac-
count, a
savings
account
matched
3 to 1 by
the
fed-
eral gov-
ernment;
Commu-
Wyden
nity De-
velopment
Block Grants, one of which
pays for the “Business Foun-
dations Workshops,” held
twice a year in Wallowa
County and which has aid-
ed dozens of entrepreneurs
to open new businesses;
Economic
Development
Administration, which gave
NEOEDD $2.6 million over
the years to loan to commu-
nity businesses through the
Revolving Loan fund; U.S.
Department of Agriculture
Rural Development, which
has allowed NEOEDD to
loan $6.03 million to com-
munity businesses in IRP
funds; and Environmental
Protection Agency Brown-
ields, which has allowed
NEOEDD to assist in assess-
ments of properties that must
be cleaned up for new uses.
Elgin Stampeders Train Robbery!
Saturday, June 18
Departs from Elgin at 10 a.m.
Eagle Cap Excursion Train
Call 800.323.7330 or book online
www.eaglecaptrainrides.com
WE WANT YOU!
If you are a confident, self-motivated individual
looking for a great job opportunity, join our
sales team. We will train if we find the right
person! Seriously, this is a great position
with a lot of financial opportunity,
along with working with a great staff.
The Wallowa County Chieftain is seeking a
salesperson who is passionate about helping
local businesses be successful while
expanding the reach of the Chieftain as
a market leader. Must demonstrate excellence
in sales and customer service, work well with
a support team and be proficient with
technology while managing time and
required paperwork efficiently.
Base wage plus commission and mileage
reimbursement make this a great opportunity
for anyone. Benefits include Paid Time Off
(PTO), insurances and a 401(k)/Roth 401(k)
retirement plan.
•
For public transportation ~ call to make a reservation 541-426-3840
•
Novelties
Open Memorial
Day to Labor Day
7 Days A Week
Tuesday & Thursday Shopping Bus
provides transportation for shopping and errands
throughout Wallowa County ~
Cost $3 from Wallowa/Joseph, $2 Enterprise only.
C OMMUNITY C ONNECTION
OF W ALLOWA C OUNTY
Send resume and letter of interest to
EO Media Group, PO Box 2048,
Salem, OR 97308-2048,
by fax to 503-371-2935
or e-mail hr@eomediagroup.com.