Bobcat fur farm moving from N.D. to Montana

A couple is proposing to move a commercial bobcat fur farm from the bustling Bakken oilfield region in western North Dakota to central Montana, where they hope to set up business in a quieter region six miles southwest of Roy in Fergus County.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Park is taking comments on an environmental assessment of the 150-foot-by-140-foot animal facility where bobcats would be housed in separate pens inside the facility.

The purpose of the facility is raising and selling bobcats and then harvesting them for their furs, which would be sold in the commercial fur industry, said Larry Schultz, who owns the business with his wife, Carol.

“It’s farming,” Schultz said Friday. “It is just a different type of farming.”

Furs will be sold at auction houses in Canada to worldwide markets, Schultz said.

“It’s a foreign product that they don’t have,” Schultz said. “It’s not a fashion deal. It’s a necessity. The Russians wear it to keep warm. That’s the way it is. We don’t in this country because of Wal-Mart.”

Bobcat fur is used for trim, hats and coats, he said.

Schultz has been in the fur farm business since 1982 and currently owns a farm in Arnegard in western North Dakota between Dickinson and Williston.

Noise and dust from activity associated with oil drilling is causing the bobcats to kill their babies, Schultz said. Arnegard is located within the Bakken oil fields.

“We can’t survive here,” Schultz said.

“They are solitary animals, and they need peace and quiet,” he added.

Schultz said he’s received some calls from critics of the industry since FWP released the environmental assessment for public comment, but he argues that raising bobcats is no different than raising cattle or growing wheat.

Ranch-raised bobcats, he said, produce better furs than wild-raised animals because they are fed and watered every day and vaccinated against disease. At the farm, the best colors also can be bred into the animals, he said.

“You can’t predict what the crop’s going to be,” Schultz said of the number of animals that will be kept at the facility. “There’s no way of knowing the numbers. You have good years, and you have bad years.”

The state’s environmental review says the impact would be minor or nonexistent. An increase in the smell of bobcat urine and feces, dependent on the waste management practice, could occur, the environmental assessment says.

The assessment says the business venture will increase the tax revenue in the county due to a new residence and the agriculture business being created. A slight increase in demand for service by FWP regional staff due to the annual license review and inspection and fur tagging will be required, it says.

FWP would require that the outside perimeter gate and each individual interior gate be padlocked at all times. And no trapping of fur-bearing animals would be allowed within or along the property boundary. Tagging of bobcat furs must be performed by an FWP warden. A contingency plan must be in place to address the escape of bobcats, according to the EIS.

Schultz said the risk of wild bobcats spreading disease to the farm animals is more of a risk because the farm cats are vaccinated against disease. The business doesn’t take animals out of the wild, as some critics contend, Schultz said.

“We have enough breeding stock we don’t have to purchase animals,” he said.

In the wild, the bobcat, the smallest of the state’s native cats, weighs 15 to 35 pounds and is about twice the size of a domestic cat, according to FWP’s field guide. Facial fur is often streaked with black and dorsal surfaces of the ears are black with a prominent white spot. A short tuft of black hair is present on the ears. The cat has a short tail, with the tips black. It differs from the Canada lynx in that bobcat paws are much smaller and their legs are shorter. In Montana, FWP says bobcats are common, widespread and abundant.

What’s next

To view or comment on the environmental assessment visit FWP’s website at fwp.mt.gov, then click “public notices.” Public comments on the EA must be made by Aug. 29. Comments also can be emailed to Shawn Briggs at sbriggs@mt.gov or mailed to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, PO Box 938, 215 Aztec Drive, Lewistown, MT 59457.