OCR Text |
Show Predator Control Fees Amendment To Affect Ranchers Department of Agriculture should now handle the collections. Every dollar paid by the livestock industry has bene matched each year by an additional $3.50 of state and federal monies to be used in the control of predators in the state. Based on reported losses, the Department estimates that in 1982 livestock loses due to predation was $3,714,364 or 17 percent of the gross product. This loss occurs in the face of an already active control program. Without control, research has shown possible losses exceeding this amount by ten times. The Utah Department of Agriculture clarified the bill amending the Wildlife Damage Prevention Act passed by Special . Session of the Legislature. Stephen T. Gillmore, Commissioner Com-missioner of Agriculture explained, "The amendment transfers the responsibility for collection of the existing predator fee from the County Treasurers to the Department Depart-ment of Agriculture." Gillmore said, "The original act was passed in 1933. It required cattle, sheep and turkey growers to pay an assessment on their livestock for predator control. From 1933 to 1983 the predator control fee was collected by county treasurers as part of the property tax payment on livestock each year." When the livestock property tax was eliminated in 1983, the county assessors no longer assessed growers. Consequently, the counties, coun-ties, the agricultural indsutry groups, and the Department of Agriculture agreed that the |