Sheep News: Bighorn Sheep Suit

Halloween may been 10 days away, but the Bighorn Sheep Suit is not about dressing up.
It's a law suit against a developer who caused a quarter of the only natural flock of bighorn sheep to die.

"North of Marana, the Silverbell Mountains rise into a hard-knuckled phalanx of crevices, boulders and broken bluffs. Within this range, deep amid the Ironwood Forest National Monument, a tenacious band of bighorn sheep clings to isolated existence. Arizona's sole native herd, it's believed to number between 70 and 100.
Last fall, escaped domestic goats infected the bighorns with twin curses--blindness-causing pink eye, and horrendous mouth sores called ecthyma that disrupt grazing and nursing. When officials finally corralled the outbreak, a good quarter of the herd was dead. Or good as dead: 'Some animals can be blind and survive,' says Richard Ockenfels, an Arizona Game and Fish research supervisor. 'But you can't be blind and be a bighorn sheep.'"

Read the full article at Tucson Weekly : Currents : Sheep Suit