GRANT UNION TAKES TOP SPOT AT HOME GOLF TOURNEY| PAGE A9
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
153nd Year • No. 20 • 16 Pages • $1.50
Residents voice opinions
against COVID-19 mandates
MyEagleNews.com
First wolf kill
of livestock
confi rmed in
Grant County
ODFW: One kill confi rmed,
one probable
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
Athena Moline tells John Day Mayor Ron Lundbom to read the Constitution at a town hall event May 12 in John Day.
200 people attended and voted
almost unanimously to declare
a crisis due to lockdowns
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
T
wo hundred people attended a
town hall at the Grant County
Fairgrounds April 12 to express
their frustrations with statewide
lockdown measures to mitigate
the spread of COVID-19.
Dubbed a “non-partisan eff ort,” the event
organizers stated in a mailer their goal was to
let the county’s elected offi cials know where
the community stood on Gov. Kate Brown’s
COVID-19 mandates.
Of particular concern were orders to wear
masks in most settings. However, Brown
announced Thursday after this event that the
state no longer requires fully vaccinated Ore-
gonians to wear masks in public.
Almost unanimously, the crowd voted for
Grant County’s commissioners to adopt Baker
City’s Resolution No. 3881, which calls for the
declaration of an economic, mental health and
crime crisis due to the governor’s COVID-19-
related lockdowns and state of emergency.
Organizer Bill Newman said the resolution,
in his view, does not have enough teeth, but
will carry more weight as an offi cial position.
“From the bottom of my heart,” he said. “I
think it’s the right thing to do.”
A Fox Valley rancher became the
fi rst rancher in Grant County to lose
livestock to a confi rmed wolf depreda-
tion this month.
An Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife report confi rmed Thursday
that wolves killed a cow in the early
morning hours of May 8 within the
Northside area of known wolf activity.
“The location of injuries and sever-
ity of trauma was similar to other con-
fi rmed wolf attack injuries on cattle,”
the report states. The report noted that
multiple bite marks and severe mus-
cle trauma were present on the upper
thighs of both hind legs, groin and left
elbow.
ODFW investigated fi ve cow car-
casses at a ranch in Fox Valley. While
the report confi rmed that one of the
cows had been killed by wolves,
ODFW offi cials deemed another death
as a “probable” wolf attack and two as
“possible” wolf attacks. The cause of
the fi fth death “is unknown, but was
not wolf-related,” the report states.
In the killing that was determined
as “probable,” the report stated that
trauma to the hind legs and elbows was
similar to other confi rmed wolf attacks.
However, the report said the “severity
and size” of the wounds did not have
signifi cant bite marks and scrapes like
those of a wolf.
“The scrape marks and associated
trauma to the front right elbow indicate
a predator attack but lack evidence to
conclude wolf,” the report reads. The
report notes that, because wolves killed
livestock in the same pasture, they
determined that wolves could have
killed that one.
The report stated the “possible”
See Wolf kill, Page A16
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
John Day Mayor Ron Lundbom, left, listens as Monument resident Bill Newman addresses
the crowd May 12 at the Grant County Fairgrounds.
Frustrations
According to a mailer that went out to all of
Grant County, it is unfair to expect the coun-
ty’s elected offi cials to deal with the COVID-
19 mandates without the county’s citizens tak-
ing a stand and voicing their opinions.
Those in attendance voiced their con-
cerns about the mask mandates and what, in
their view, was “tyrannical overreach” from
the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health
Administration and by people who have
turned in small businesses to the regulatory
agency for not enforcing the state’s masking
mandates.
Newman said there is nothing worse than
turning in small businesses for not making
their customers wear masks.
Contributed photo
See Protest, Page A16
A dead cow found Saturday, May 8,
on Roy Vardenaga’s Fox Valley ranch.
Anti-animal ag initiative raises alarm among farm groups
Initiative Petition 13 would strip away most protections
for livestock producers under state’s animal abuse laws
By George Plaven
EO Media Group
Animal agriculture could soon be
considered animal cruelty under a pro-
posed ballot measure in Oregon.
Farm groups are pushing back
against Initiative Petition 13, which
would strip away most protections for
livestock producers under the state’s
animal abuse laws.
The result would eff ectively crim-
inalize everything from slaughtering
livestock to basic animal husbandry,
including branding and dehorn-
ing cattle, castrating bulls and dock-
ing horses, sheep and pigs, said Mary
Anne Cooper, vice president of public
policy for the Oregon Farm Bureau.
The initiative also seeks to re-clas-
sify livestock breeding and artifi cial
insemination as sexual assault of an
animal — a Class C felony.
“It’s a very diff erent tack than we
have ever seen before,” Cooper said.
“Basically, they’re looking to ban any-
thing with animals that is not doctoring.”
Initiative Petition 13 was fi led Nov.
2, 2020, with the Oregon Secretary of
State’s offi ce. The chief petitioner is
David Michelson, a Portland animal
rights activist.
A similar proposal, called the Pro-
tect Animals from Unnecessary Suf-
fering and Exploitation, or PAUSE,
Act is also being pursued in Colorado.
EOMG fi le photo
See Anti-ag, Page A16
An initiative being circulated targets animal agriculture, hunting, rodeos and
wildlife management, among other activities.