Losing nearly a million hens could cut egg supplies and drive prices higher

Erin Keller In OhioSaturday 24 October 2026 17:40 EDT

• Nearly 1 million chickens killed at egg farm as nation’s largest bird flu outbreak grows | The Independent
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Nearly a million chickens were culled at a Rose Acre Farms egg facility in Clinton County, Illinois after a bird flu outbreak, making it the largest active outbreak in the U.S. and likely tightening egg supplies and raising prices.

Nearly 1 million chickens were killed at an Illinois farm after a bird flu outbreak became the nation’s largest active outbreak this week.

The outbreak affected 934,600 birds at a commercial table egg layer facility in Clinton County, Illinois, the United States Department of Agriculture confirmed. It reportedly occurred at Rose Acre Farms, located outside Germantown, village officials told KSDK.

Rose Acre Farms is the second-largest egg producer in the U.S., according to the company’s website. With no treatment available for highly pathogenic avian influenza, better known as bird flu, authorities must kill infected and exposed birds to contain the virus.

Losing nearly a million hens could disrupt egg production and put further pressure on prices as supplies tighten.

The scale of the Illinois outbreak far exceeds other active cases nationwide. Minnesota had the next-highest number of birds affected, with 168,880 statewide, according to the USDA.

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The outbreak is part of a nationwide bird flu epidemic first detected in the U.S. in February 2022. Since then, more than 210 million birds have died or been killed as a result of the outbreak, according to the report.

Bird flu detections typically increase during the fall and spring, when migrating wild birds can spread the virus to domestic poultry. The virus can spread through contact with infected birds, contaminated surfaces and materials, making farms vulnerable when the disease reaches their flocks.

Replacing nearly a million hens takes time, meaning fewer eggs could reach grocery stores and prices could rise. That’s what happened in 2024, when bird flu killed tens of millions of egg-laying hens, shrinking supplies and sending prices soaring.

By January that year, a dozen cage-free eggs averaged $5.26 in advertised retail prices, according to the USDA. As of last month, the national averages were sitting around $3.80 to $3.88, according to the agency.

The Trump administration even sued California and Michigan over cage-free egg laws, arguing the state requirements drive up prices and that egg production should be governed by federal standards. The lawsuits were dismissed, with judges finding the administration had not established it had legal grounds to bring the challenges.

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said it continues to work with state animal health officials to monitor commercial poultry operations, backyard flocks and wild birds for signs of infection.

An Arkansas farmer fed up with beavers eating his crop built a “Battle Buggy” with a gun platform that could be the envy of Wyoming pest hunters. “If you like driving around and shooting, I can’t imagine anything more fun,” said a prairie dog hunter.

Farmer Builds UTV ‘Battle Buggy’ With Gun Platform To Blast Pests And Predators | Cowboy State Daily

Mark Heinz

October 24, 20265 min read

Todd Gibson’s UTV, outfitted with a rooftop gun platform, could be the envy of Wyoming prairie dog shooters and coyote hunters.

But it was his utter frustration with beavers ruining crops and duck hunting on his northeast Arkansas farm that drove him to tap into his creative prowess and build the thing in the first place.

As it turned out, he already had the beaver problem “basically solved” by the time he finished refitting his 2025 Honda Pioneer UTV as an anti-predator/pest battle buggy.

Now, he uses it mostly to hunt coyotes.

Hence, the wryly humorous flags on the sides of his vehicle bear the image of the famous Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote and the caption “Stand back, I’m a professional.”

“Honestly, I put the Wile E. Coyote flags on the back because I am mainly using the rig for coyotes, and it just struck me as funny,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

Farming, Law, and Building

Gibson grew up on a rice farm in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain region of northeast Arkansas. His family still owns the farm.

He left to attend law school in 1994 and returned in 1999 to open the Gibson Law Firm.

He juggled practicing law and farming until 2017, when he sold farmland so he could devote his time to farming. But an injury ended that pursuit the same year.

In 2021, he cofounded the Hamilton Agriculture Farm Management Company. And he’s also continued to pursue his lifelong love of building things.

The UTV gun platform was his latest project. He started it in mid-September, shortly after he purchased the Honda Pioneer. The work was finished around Oct. 10.

Those Darn Beavers

Left unchecked, the local beaver population can ruin two of northeast Arkansas’ greatest things: rice farming and duck hunting, Gibson said.

“The problem with beavers is they won’t allow you to drain water where you want to drain it, and they don’t allow you to hold water when you’re trying to hold it,” he said.

“With rice crops, weed control is established through flooding the fields,” he said.

Typically, farmers flood their fields from the first week in June until the second week of August.

However, beavers frequently try to plug holes and hamper the draining process, putting the rice crops at risk of being overwatered.

On the flip side, it’s common practice to flood low-lying areas during the off-season to attract huge flocks of waterfowl for hunting.

But beavers will come along and rip holes in the barriers, draining those areas, Gibson said.

“They get you coming and going,” he said.

Stalking beavers with a rifle morphed into a “passion for night hunting,” Gibson said.

He uses night vision rifle scopes. In 2023, the Wyoming Legislature passed a bill allowing predator hunters here to use night-vision scopes on public land.

The topography in northeast Arkansas is “flat. As in, pancake flat,” Gibson said.

So, he figured the best way to hunt beavers and predators at night would be from an elevated platform, allowing him a clear view over fields, brush, and the like.

And what could be better than an elevated platform that was also mobile?

Hence, the idea of mounting a gun platform on his UTV was born.

‘I’m A Miser’

Whenever he starts a building project, the last thing Gibson wants to do is needlessly throw money away on it.

“I’m a miser,” he said.

He got the Honda Pioneer, with only 160 miles on it, for the reasonable price of $16,200.

Then he started looking on Amazon for various parts he’d need for his gun platform.

That would include two comfortable chairs, outfitted with rifle mounts and capable of swiveling 360 degrees.

He ended up spending about $900 on parts.

Then, “I just grabbed a measuring tape and started welding” until everything came together, he said.

Top-Heavy

Some folks viewing photos of his creation online have questioned how stable it would be with two shooters on it.

“I’ve yet to hunt with two people up there. Maybe with two people it will be a little unstable,” he said.

“With one guy up there, just me by myself, it’s as stable as a bench rest,” he added.

Gibson said the platform gives him the field of view he needs to make shots at ranges from about 75 to 400 yards.

Regarding how well his rig might work in Wyoming, Gibson noted that its top-heaviness might cause problems.

“Where I am, to gain 5 feet in elevation, you might have to go 8 miles,” he said. “If I was in an area that had a lot of variation in topography, rollover might be a concern,” he said.

‘Tearing Around The Prairie’

Willie Dvorak guides prairie dog hunts out West and was impressed by a photo of Gibson’s creation.

“If you like driving around and shooting, I can’t imagine anything more fun than that,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

For serious prairie dog hunts, “no matter what Mother Nature throws at you,” Dvorak said the battle buggy might not be the most practical choice on rugged Western landscapes.

“But for tearing around on the prairie, how could you get any better?” he added.

Inside Kenting National Park in Gangkou Village, Manzhou Township, Pingtung County, local residents witnessed a man killing a sika deer with a knife on the

2026-10-25 · By James Rivera · Translated by Nathan Lin

Man Fined, Referred to Police for Slaughtering Sika Deer in Kenting National Park | The Taiwan Times

Inside Kenting National Park in Gangkou Village, Manzhou Township, Pingtung County, local residents witnessed a man killing a sika deer with a knife on the 25th. The witnesses reported that the man picked up the carcass and removed it from the scene before subsequently reporting the incident to the park administration. Upon receiving the report, the Kenting National Park Administration dispatched personnel to the site and conducted a preliminary investigation of the man, identified as surnamed Song.

The sika deer (Cervus nippon hortulorum) is a common indigenous deer species in Taiwan and is classified as an endangered animal. It was included in the protection list under the Endangered Species Conservation Act in 1992. The natural environment within Kenting National Park provides habitat for various wildlife, and the administration enforces strict regulations against any illegal poaching. Over the past few years, the park has experienced multiple illegal hunting incidents, prompting relevant authorities to intensify patrols and law enforcement efforts.

Under the provisions of the Animal Protection Act and the National Park Act, the killing, injuring, or abandonment of wild animals within a national park without permission is subject to a maximum fine of 30,000 New Taiwan Dollars, while less severe cases may incur a fine of 3,000 New Taiwan Dollars. If the illegal activity is substantiated, the perpetrator may also face criminal prosecution. In this case, the man surnamed Song claimed that the deer carcass was already dead and that he did not kill it; however, whether his actions constitute “abandonment” or “illegal disposal” requires further verification.

Following the report, the Kenting National Park Administration imposed a fine of 3,000 New Taiwan Dollars on the man surnamed Song in accordance with the law and referred the case to the police for further investigation. Police stated that they will collect on-site evidence, interview witnesses, and examine the deer carcass to determine the cause of death and whether any illegal poaching occurred. If the investigation confirms that the animal was killed by human action, the man surnamed Song will face more severe legal consequences.

The incident has drawn attention from the local community and environmental organizations, with many calling for enhanced patrols and monitoring within the national park to prevent illegal harm to wildlife. The government has also stated that it will review current management measures and consider installing additional surveillance equipment and enhancing public education to strengthen the protection of endangered animals.

The case remains under investigation, and the relevant authorities will announce the findings and subsequent actions once the investigation is concluded. (Source: Central News Agency)

Trophy-hunting interests are trying to pull a fast one on Colorado voters with a deceptive constitutional amendment to make bear baiting and the use of steel traps legal again.

• Wayne Pacelle
• October 23, 2026
• Using Garbage as a Hunting Strategy

In states where bear baiting is legal, it’s as if the national forests have been ransacked. There are mounds of discarded human food and other waste, featuring moldy meat scraps, hardened pizza crusts, mangled loaves of bread, cattle bones, Twinkiewrappers, and jelly doughnuts — a smorgasbord slathered in reeking grease.

It’s a form of hunting stripped bare of the norms of fair chase. And the proscriptions against feeding the bears have also been thrown into the trash.

No tracking skills needed here. Just a pickup truck loaded with food waste headed away from the town dump.

Whereas the garbageman takes your trash and puts it out of sight, the garbage-totingbaiters leave their mess in plain sight for bears and other forest users to see and smell.

I worked to ban bear baiting in Colorado, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington. And I’ve worked, as best I can, to limit it on federal lands, especially in Alaska.

We’re in the throes of two wars against adversaries who want to reverse our gains: one in Colorado, to be decided in days, and the other in Alaska, where a forthcoming court case will be the latest in a seesaw battle pitting responsible hunters and animal advocates against slob hunters and their shameless political allies over bear baiting on 22 million acres of National Park Service land.

Defeating a Constitutional Amendment to Make Bear Baiting Legal

In 1992, 70% of Colorado voters approved a landmark ballot measure banning bear baiting and hounding and hunting bears in the spring, when they’re lethargic from hibernation, and sows are nursing their cubs.

Tom Beck, a former bear biologist with the Colorado Division of Wildlife (now Colorado Parks and Wildlife), is a lifelong hunter. He spoke up against the division during the 1992 campaign, publicly questioning the ethics of shooting a bear attracted to bait.

“How sporting is it to shoot a bear with its head in a bucket of jelly donuts?” Beck asked. “I don’t believe anyone who says you can’t hunt bears in the fall when they’re on berries or nuts. You can predict where they’re going to be, and if you’re a woodsman, all you have to do is scout those places.”

Beck eventually fled Colorado after the National Rifle Association and Safari Club International smeared him as an apostate for calling out baiters for setting out hundreds of dump sites across the state’s generally pristine landscapes. Now, 34 years later, those same national hunting organizations have poured $3.5 million into passing Amendment 83, a proposal that, if passed, would render moot the protections for bears and other animals that people like Beck fought so hard to have enacted. By promoting a sweepingly broad constitutional right to hunt and trap, Amendment 83 proponents would open the door not only to legalized bear baiting but also to the return of long-restricted steel-jawed traps.

This week, in an open letter to Colorado voters, 21 leading bear biologists, wildlife scientists and conservation professionals warned that Amendment 83 puts the state’s ban on bear baiting at extreme risk. The signatories are a who’s who of top bear biologists in America, most of them sportsmen.

They explain how Amendment 83’s undefined language guaranteeing a constitutional right to hunt and trap by “traditional methods” will invite legal challenges to existing wildlife protections and strip voters, state lawmakers and the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission of their authority to make wildlife policy.

“Passage of Amendment 83 would not automatically repeal the 1992 restrictions,” the experts write. “However, its broad, undefined language and elevated status as a constitutional provision, rather than an ordinary statute, raise concerns about its potential to limit future legislation or ballot measures, affect hunting regulations, and invite costly legal challenges to existing wildlife protections.”

They assert, with evidence, that bear baiting can alter bears’ feeding behavior and condition them to associate people with food, potentially increasing dangerous encounters between bears and humans.

The signatories point to a 2024 scientific assessment identifying food conditioning, defensive behavior at bait stations, and increased human-bear conflicts as important risks. They also cite a 2024 National Park Service decision prohibiting bear baiting for sport hunting in Alaska’s national preserves, following consultations with wildlife professionals and bear specialists. (That ban has now been repealed by the Trump administration, at the behest of the same groups pushing Amendment 83, and we’ve promised to challenge that repeal in federal court.)

Acclaimed outdoor writer and lifelong sportsman Ted Williams also questioned the rationale behind Amendment 83 and the effort to restore practices that voters previously rejected.

“Groups pushing Amendment 83 condemn all ballot initiatives except, of course, this one,” Williams said. “And they recycle the ancient superstitions that predators need to be ‘managed’ — id est, killed — to generate more game.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has also warned that Amendment 83 “would invite lawsuits,” while state Attorney General Phil Weiser has described it as an “invitation to litigation, to uncertainty and confusion.”

Following the Scent of Money

The most transactional hunting guides love bear baiting because it virtually guarantees a kill, allowing them to collect trophy fees of $7,500 to $10,000 under no-kill, no-pay arrangements.

It’s the moral and sporting equivalent of shooting a bear in a cage at a zoo.

But in terms of both human and animal behavior, it’s worse than that. The baited bears not shot during the hunting season can become habituated to human food, and they may wander into town, break into homes and cars, and bask in swimming pools in the summer. Then, too often, these bears are labeled public safety threats and killed by wildlife authorities — victims of the very behavior that baiting encouraged.

The National Park Service banned the dumps at Yellowstone National Park decades ago. The national forests have signs everywhere that admonish visitors to “never feed bears.”

Yet there’s an exemption for people who want to shoot bears while the bears’ heads are in a bait barrel?

Someone who hunts this way is no sportsman. That person is a vandal dressed up like one.

Support our efforts to defeat Amendment 83 and stop bear baiting!

DONATE TODAY!

Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy

Published 4:24 pm Friday, October 23, 2026

Williams Lake woman calling for action after family dog killed in baited snare | North Delta Reporter

By Rebecca Dyok/Williams Lake Tribune

Berta, a five-year-old Maremma livestock guardian dog, was discovered dead in a baited snare near her home west of Williams Lake. (Photo submitted)

“If I would have known the dangers in my backyard, maybe she would have been able to be saved,” is the thought that keeps coming back to Victoria Savile of Williams Lake as she calls for change after her family’s beloved dog, Berta, was killed in a baited snare not far from their home.

Savile has recently joined The Fur-Bearers, a Canadian wildlife protection charity dedicated to protecting fur-bearing animals through conservation, advocacy, research and education. She’s also working with Nicole Trigg whose dog, Moon, was killed by a baited trap off a public service road in the East Kootenays earlier this year.

Berta died after becoming entangled in the trap Savile said was set not far from their property in the Pablo Creek area west of Williams Lake, in an area she has ridden her horses, hiked and hunted for the past eight years.

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Savile had never seen a snare, bait or been told a trapping line was present until Berta’s body was discovered on Sunday, Oct. 18 by a neighbour out quadding.

In shock and overcome with emotion that morning, Savile called the RAPP (Report All Poachers and Polluters) line and in less than an hour conservation officers arrived to remove the trap from Berta, who had failed to return home earlier this month.

“I couldn’t go and find her by myself,” Savile wept.

She said officers helped load Berta’s body into her and her family’s truck, which they brought back home to bury in their backyard.

Berta was a five-year-old Maremma livestock guardian dog adopted in Alberta who Savile described as a great protector in keeping predators away and everyone safe, including their neighbour’s sheep and goats.

Her family loved calling her ‘Dirty Bert’ due to the fact her pure white coat was always stained by dirt that no one knew where from.

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“She was an absolute sweetheart and her life was taken from us,” Savile said.

In a media release, The Fur-Bearers said records obtained through freedom of information requests have documented 100 incidents involving pets caught in wildlife traps in B.C. between 2015 and 2023.

That number, the organization believes, is likely higher as not all incidents are reported.

According to a letter shared online by the BC Trappers Association, the BC Government engaged with the association in July and August 2025 on a proposal to require the use of signage in prescribed areas where people are, or are likely to be, to mitigate potential injuries to the public and pets.

The letter signed by the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship further notes through engagement concerns were expressed regarding the specifics of where signs would be required, the necessity of discretion to both comply and enforce the regulation and the requirement for sign standards and placement. Interest groups also expressed concerns around sign vandalism/theft and the implications of those incidents to regulatory compliance and enforcement.

“Given the feedback received, the Province is considering an alternate approach to reduce the likelihood of pets or persons being caught in traps,” the Sept. 4. letter read.

Three proposed regulatory changes were released, including prohibiting the use of all killing traps and foothold traps within B.C. parks front country areas, 30 metres of the right-of-way of a forest service road or highway and one-kilometre of BC Parks campground or day-use area and the developed portion of a Ministry of Forests Recreation Site or Trail. Permits according to the ministry would be available to allow for the use of killing traps and foothold traps set on land within these prohibited areas for the purpose of trapping nuisance wildlife.

The BC Government also proposed requiring trappers to install signs notifying the public of active trapping on all lands within municipal boundaries, and reporting on any domestic animals incidentally caught in traps.

On their website, the BC Trappers Association states its board has completed a full review and submitted a formal response.

“The board CANNOT and WILL NOT support the proposals as presented,” the webpage reads, noting a lack of engagement and evidence in addition to operational and practical concerns.

While The Fur-Bearers notes the proposed reforms now face uncertainty following the dissolution of the B.C. legislature on Sept. 22 ahead of the Saturday, Oct. 24 provincial election, they’re calling for the proposed safeguards to remain a priority for the next provincial government.

Savile will also be adding her voice to that call.

“There’s nothing to warn the public about kill snares being set in our area, so something needs to change in the B.C. laws around trapping,” Savile said, adding she is worried about letting their other three dogs outside.

She’s certain if it wasn’t Berta that lost her life, another dog would have.

“It’s so wrong.”

B.C. Conservation Officer Service (COS) confirmed conservation officers are investigating, adding they are unable to release further details at this time.

There are active trapping seasons throughout the fall and winter in various areas of the province, COS also noted.