Our View: You can't pull wool over the eyes of science

Marie Bulgin doesn't hide her opinions. "I'm not against bighorn sheep," she told the Associated Press recently. "I'm just for agriculture."

Unfortunately for Bulgin, the head of the University of Idaho's Caine Veterinary Teaching and Research Center, science isn't supposed to pick sides. Science is supposed to gather evidence and let the facts serve as the guide.

Somehow, for 15 years, Bulgin seemed unaware of research within her own shop, which suggested that wild bighorn sheep can contract disease from domestic animals. While this evidence remained on file, Bulgin continued to discount the disease-transmission theory.

This is an outrage of an oversight. Her explanation isn't exactly reassuring. "This kind of compromises me, because (of) what I've been saying," she told the AP. "Some things slip by you."

Quite a slip.

Bulgin didn't merely compromise her own credibility; to their credit, U of I officials are looking into the issue.

Meanwhile, the overlooked research and Bulgin's unflinching pro-industry stance drive a deeper wedge between wool growers and bighorn sheep advocates.

A bighorn management law, passed in the final days of the 2009 legislative session, clearly put the wool growers' interests first. The Department of Fish and Game is required to come up with plans that could involve killing or moving bighorns that stray too close to domestic sheep grazing allotments on federal land. The law is notably cavalier about killing sheep - and is conspicuously skeptical about the question of diseases. "The potential risk, if any, of disease transmission and loss of bighorn sheep when the same invade domestic livestock or sheep operations is accepted."

It is easier to pass one-sided legislation when politicians aren't getting the whole scientific story. Bad science has a way of spawning bad public policy. The best way to resolve complicated issues is through a full understanding of the complexities. In this case, sound management must recognize disease as a potential factor in declining bighorn numbers - and a potential threat to the long-term health of the bighorn population.

The disease-transmission question may not be resolved to the satisfaction of the legislators who passed the bighorn law. Closer to the ground, it's a different story. Near the Payette National Forest, sheep ranchers and bighorn advocates are collaborating on a management plan - partly by addressing the disease issue on the front end. "We took the issue of disease transmission off the table," rancher Margaret Soulen-Hinson told the Statesman's Rocky Barker. "We agreed it can happen."

Good thing the group didn't sit around waiting for an answer from Bulgin.

"Our View" is the editorial position of the Idaho Statesman. It is an unsigned opinion expressing the consensus of the Statesman's editorial board.