NILGAI ANTELOPES KILLOFF BIG MONEY MAKER FOR SOMEONE?

By Juan Montoya
Comments made by Texas Animal Health Commission Executive Director and State Veterinarian Dr. Dee Ellis during a gathering between ranchers and state and federal agency officials late last week should have raised a few red flags.

But they didn't.
Besides incurring the wrath of  FWS wildlife refuge manager Boyd Blihovde who did not appreciate being singled out as the source of fever-tick infested Nilgai antelope, discussion at the meeting revealed that of some 190 Nilgai killed only four had ticks.
"But the Nilgai is still the problem?,” asked a hunter present at the meet.
South Texas residents in the rural areas by the Port of Brownsville Ship Channel have seen the hunts using helicopters with shooters felling the large bovine-like beasts. Many who live in the area said that they imagined that once the animals are killed, they were buried with the use of a backhoe.
But that is not the case at all, according to the president of the Broken Arrow Ranch that butcher them on the spot. What gets thrown away are the  unusable parts like organs, heads and bones. What is saved is actually sold on the market by his ranch.
And Nilgai meat – said to be delicious – is a pricey cut of meat averaging anywhere from $17 a pound to as much as $40 or more. Some say the New York market can pay as much as $100 on choice cuts from the antelope. (To see catalog, click on link: www.brokenarrowranch.com
KC Cunningham, the ranch president, told us about two months ago that they had just finished "harvesting approximately 181 Nilgai Antelope off of two National Wildlife Refuges. These harvests were done under contract with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We did this in conjunction with the Texas Department of Animal Health and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

This was done for two reasons. First, was to slow down the northern migration of the Fever Tick which can cause sickness and death in cattle. 

This tick will ride on many different animals but only has adverse effects on bovine. If this tick continues its northern movement and gets into the cattle ranches along the coast, the economic impact would devastate South Texas. Effected cattle are treated, the ranches are quarantined and in many cases the effected herd must be killed and burned. Jobs would be lost and many incomes would disappear.

Secondly, the Nilgai Antelope is a native of Nepal and is considered an evasive specie in Texas. Brought into Texas in the 1920's this specie has spread from Kingsville to Mexico. It competes with the native animals and domesticated cattle for food sources. If not controlled they could cause irreparable damage to the unique Eco system of the southern Texas coastal plains."

Broken Arrow Ranch is located in the Texas hill country that specializes in exotic deer and antelope population control. We harvest the exotic animals humanely, process there meat and sell it to restaurants and individuals across the U.S. 

We pay the land owner for each pound of meat that we harvest. We have been in business for over 32 years. I cannot speak for anyone else that is selling Nilgai meat but, we do not sell ours for anywhere near the number you stated. On average our Nilgai meat sells for about $17 dollars a pound. The premium cuts do cost more."

"The meat has a mild flavor with a good texture, much like veal," the website states. "It is extremely low in fat, averaging well under 1 percent for most cuts. These are large animals, weighing an average of 280 pounds on the hoof. This larger size reduces our harvesting and processing cost when calculated on a per pound basis and allows us to offer this meat at very attractive prices."
So if only four of the 190 animals had the fever tick, who reaped the profits of the expensive meat?
If they get 200 pounds of marketable meat from one animal and then average of, say, $30 a pound, that would net them $6,000 per animal. With 186 animals that wold translate into $1,160,000.
Did, as Cunningham said, some of the money to to the landowners? Did it go to the state? Did it go to the federal government? Or did Broken Arrow Ranch get the meat in return for its hunting and butchering of the animals?
At least two landowners out by Boca Chica – Bobby Lerma and George Gavito – deny that they ever got a red cent from the animals hunted on their lands.
And are these hunts – given the low number of infested animals of the 190 killed – really just a cover for a money-making scheme by the Texas Department of Animal Health and the and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service?