322 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 1924. 



Montana in 18 years paid al)out SI 25.000 a year, which made an 

 u^orregate (tf about §2.000.000. and at the end of that period it had 

 practically as many wolves and coyotes as it had at the beginning. 

 The expenditure of that amount of money ought to have killed every 

 pnMhitorv animal in the State of Montana. 



Mr. Ju.MP. The bounty hunters also get the least destructive 

 animals '. 



Doctor Nelson. A bounty hunter can not afford to persist in tning 

 to destroy the very cunning, experienced predatory animals, particu- 

 larlv wolves and certain coyotes, which have become very suspicious 

 and have evaded capture for years. We will, when necessary, keep a 

 man for months on the trail of a notorious stock killer until we get 

 him. There have been bounties offered of SoOO on a single wolf, and 

 the bounty hunter goes in and spends a month or so and quits, because 

 he can not afford to keep after him. But we put one of our men in 

 there, and he follows that animal until he gets him, and in that way I 

 we have destroyed in South Dakota one wolf that had a record of 

 about S25,000 worth of live stock it had killed on the range. 



Mr. Buchanan. How much was the reward offered for that wolf I 



Doctor Nelson. They had offered up to S500 reward for hun. ^ 



Mr. Buchanan. I have heard of even as high as §1,000 being \ 

 offered for a big lobo wolf. ^ 



Doctor Nelson. Our men have killed a lot of those notorious old 

 animals; and last spring they killed a big grizzly bear near Williams, 

 .^Vriz., that had a record with the stockmen of having killed during its 

 life some §25,000 to §30,000 worth of stock. 



CONTUOL OK RABIES. 



In addition to hunting the animals because of their destruction of 

 stock there is the control of rabies. Rabies started in the West in 

 1915, when it spread to five States — northern California, Oregon, 

 Idaho, Nevada, and Washington 



Mr. Buchanan (interposing). You do not mean the first rabies 

 started in 1915 in the West ^ 



Doctor Nelson. Oh, no; I mean this epidemic I* am speaking of. 

 It became so severe that those five States urgently asked for an ap- 

 propriation to do something to help control it, and an appropriation 

 was made. We organized the work along the lines mentioned, with 

 inspectors and paid hunters, and before we got thorouglily going 

 rabies had spread into Utah, but we stopped it there, and we have 

 held it ever since. 



There have l)een several outbreaks. Last year there was an out- 

 break in Washington, and it started to spread again, but we concen- 

 trated hunters there and suppressed it. What we do is concentrate 

 a lot of iiunters with tray^s and poison to kill the predatorv animals. 

 In that wav we dean Uj) liu" animals which serve as carriers of the 

 disea.se in that distinct, and that stops the spreatl of the rabies. 



Mr. IkcHANAN. Wolvt's, j)rinci|)nlly >. 



Doctor Nel.son. (\\vot«'s and wolves; y<'s. But evoiv earni\ erous 

 iiiiinml has it skunks have it, cats and dogs have it, and they pass 

 it on to cattle, sheei), and horses, all kinils of live stock. 



Mr. Bi( n.\N AN. if you kill out the jack rabbits, you will not have 

 anv remedv for rabies an\ cure ^ 



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