Rex Rammell To Be Charged With Illegally Killing Elk
Rex Rammell, a former candidate for Idaho governor, is under investigation for hunting and killing an elk without a tag.
“It’s typical Fish and Game B.S. in my opinion,” said Rammell.
Idaho Fish and Game said Rammell was in illegal possession of an elk. When an officer asked Rammell to show his hunting permit, he showed the officer one for the Middle Fork zone. However, Rammell was hunting in the Tex Creek zone.
“With a general deer tag you can hunt anywhere in the state until you get one,” said Rammell. “Why don’t you have to designate a zone for deer if you have to designate a zone for elk?”
Not only was he in the wrong zone, but Rammell?s permit expired in October.
Fish and Game said Rammell was not cooperative when officers tried to take the elk away from him. They said he loaded up his truck and drove away.
Fish and Game officers and Bonneville County deputies said they followed Rammel to his house, where they were able to take the elk.
Officers said they were ready to issue Rammell a citation, but he ran into his house and wouldn?t come out.
“To call the state police and make a big deal out of it in my neighborhood — I mean I felt like a fugitive felon over here for killing an elk in a legal zone on a legal day,” said Rammell.
The Fish and Game office in Boise is handling the investigation and said it will be seeking formal charges through the Bonneville County Prosecutor?s Office.
Rammell told Local News 8 he intends to argue that he did not break the law and that Fish and Game had no right to take his elk.
“I can tell the people of Idaho that I’m still interested in politics and it is my absolute goal if I become the governor of Idaho I will reform the Fish and Game,” said Rammell. “As we know them today, they will no longer exist.”
In 2006, he had run-ins with Fish and Game when 160 elk from his ranch got loose. The escape kicked off a furor, with then-Gov. Jim Risch ordering an emergency hunt. It ended up costing taxpayers more than $60,000.
