Let's make one thing clear upfront: The actions of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the past have at least appeared to reflect a double-standard between what is allowed for government agencies like TWRA and what is allowed for private operations where the transportation and keeping of elk and other animals is concerned.

But the ire of commercial farmers is in the wrong direction. It is not the fault of TWRA or any other DNR that the double-standard exists; the blame lies solely with the USDA. Stating a fear that importing elk to Tennessee might raise the risk for diseases being introduced to the state's farmed herds when such a fear is apparently not valid is inexcuseable.

Likewise, the USDA substituting politics for biology is inexcuseable.

The question is a simple one: Are the elk at Elk Island National Park in Alberta at risk for disease? The answer, repeatedly, has been proven "no." Elk Island has been mostly fenced since 1906 and entirely fenced since 1968. The last case of TB at Elk Island was in the early 1960s.

The USDA has told TWRA that it cannot import elk from Elk Island because the reserve cannot be certified a disease-free facility. If Elk Island cannot be considered disease-free, it is a technicality at best; a technicality that exists because the facility is so large that not all dead animals are discovered soon enough for testing for the cause of death to be effective. But Elk Island's testing standards remain among the most rigorous in the industry. And the facts remain that the facility is properly fenced and no disease has been found there in more than four decades. Elk Island should not be penalized because of the size of its facility.

The USDA's stance would lead a casual observer to believe that Elk Island elk are a concern for introducing disease to the U.S., and the USDA cites a mutual agreement with the Canada Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) where certain regulations must be met. But the CFIA is apparently not overly concerned about Elk Island's elk being diseased; if TWRA cannot accept the 140 elk that were prepared for transportation to Royal Blue WMA, Elk Island plans to release them into the wild in Alberta. And the CFIA will not stand in their way.

So let's be clear: Elk Island elk are not a threat to other elk, whitetail deer or game farms in Tennessee. I live in Scott County, near Royal Blue WMA. These elk are in my backyard. If they're diseased, the disease will be in my backyard. If the disease were CWD and TWRA undertook an eradication plan similar to that undertaken by Wisconsin when CWD was discovered in free-ranging whitetail deer there, the eradication program would be in my backyard. It would be my deer hunting that would greatly suffer. If I felt there was a hint of a reason to be concerned, I would be 100 percent opposed to elk from Elk Island being transported to Tennessee.

No, elk from Elk Island are not a disease threat, though commercial elk breeders would have us believe otherwise. David Autry, owner of H&A Farms near Lexington, TN lobbied long and hard, even threatening legal action, before USDA finally blocked transport of the elk to Tennessee. Autry told the Memphis Commercial Appeal last month that it "makes no sense at all that they want to bring in live elk (from Elk Island)."

In an online discussion forum, Autry said that the transportation of the elk from Elk Island to Tennessee was "just too risky to allow," stating, "This elk shipment could potentially spread CWD while traveling down their highways because research has proven that CWD can be spread by blood and saliva which will be dripping from the trailers as they travel across the country."

Yet, by his own admission, Autry believes the regulations in place restricting the transportation of cervid are "ridiculous and unreasonable," stating on a discussion forum for deer and elk farmers that, "These ridiculous and unreasonable rules that have been force on us farmers the past 10 or 12 years is nothing more than a way to try and force us out of business and eliminate the competition for the wildlife agencies."

In other words, Autry believes the laws in place are overboard, yet he's willing to cite those laws and disease concerns as reasons why TWRA should not be allowed to transport elk.

Meanwhile, Autry says that Tennessee should not be permitted to import elk from Elk Island because of the disease concerns. So imagine our surprise when we learned that Autry has applied in the past for approval to import elk from the same facility — Elk Island. That admission was made on the same discussion forum, where Autry said, " few years back, right after TWRA was allowed to import elk from Elk Island the first time that did not meet TN import requirements, I applied for importation from Elk Island as well. TWRA's request was approved by the TN Dept. of Ag. Mine was not."

Are we to believe that elk from Elk Island released into the wild in Tennessee would risk introduction of disease to Tennessee's free-roaming cervid but elk from Elk Island put into pens at H&A Farms would not risk introduction of disease to the other animals at the Lexington ranch?

Critics of elk being transported to Tennessee from Elk Island point out that CWD has been diagnosed in three free-roaming mule deer in Alberta, around 100 miles from Elk Island. If this is proof that the enclosed elk of Elk Island are at risk for CWD and should not be transported, we must consider any game farm within 100 miles of a diagnosed case of CWD to likewise be tainted. Such reasoning would have a crippling bottom-line affect on game farms within 100 miles of CWD cases diagnosed in Wisconsin, Minnesota and northern Illinois.

Countless man hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars have gone into Tennessee's elk program. To put that at risk by cutting off the state's only major source of elk because the USDA is getting involved in a petty spitting contest between the game agency and a game farm is not only ludicrous, but professionally irresponsible. If there is a reason why Elk Island elk should be considered harmful for our free-roaming cervid herds, we'd like to see the USDA lay those reasons on the table. Otherwise, the USDA should work quickly to re-establish the link between TWRA and Elk Island so that the elk program, already delayed once by CWD concerns, is not unnecessarily delayed again.