The Murder of Chin Creek Chin
by Hank Vogler

To every hunter in the state of Nevada that ever put in for a tag. My sincere apology for causing the cold blooded murder of Chin Creek Chin. Several years ago a wild big horn ram showed up on the Antelope Range in Eastern Nevada. He would hang with my , dare I say, domestic sheep. He was a lonely guy. Maybe lost his way on his walk about. Yet when in the area of my sheep. Mr. Chin would run down the hill to eat selenium salt and see if he could find a domestic ewe for a date. He even lost his fear of the guard dogs. Other than salt he never got anything else. Now several years later, with Mr. Chin raised to legend status, I made the horrible mistake of telling an NDOW employee of his existence. Several low level biologists knew of his existence but took no action. My mistake was to tell a person higher in the pecking order of NDOW of Mr. Chin's location and demeanor. The original reason for my conversation with this NDOW employee was a referral from another NDOW employee whom I had contacted about my problem with attaining a land owner compensation tag for private land. I have removed pinion and juniper from over four hundred acres of private land and plan to clear another four hundred acres, funds and time as the only restriction. My angst was that no matter how hard I worked to improve the habitat for wildlife, my credit for the tag kept getting closer to not getting a tag. I thought it was an incentive tag for improvements on private land. I guess as a domestic sheep owner that makes me NDOW enemy number one. How embarrassing to have a wild sheep mingle with domestic sheep and not die instantly as the pseudo-science seems to suggest. My answering machine on July 27  had a call from the NDOW employee that I thought, as he had indicated, common ground could exist. It was after five. I returned the call stating that I was on my way to Canada, ironically to harvest a Stone Sheep, And that my return would be August 17, 2009. My good fortune was to return early with a beautiful ram taken. Only to find out that in my absence, after years of co-existence Mr. Chin quite miraculously contacted some domestic sheep disease and showed such ill health that his murder was paramount to saving the rest of the wild sheep in the state. In his delirium Mr. Chin might have walked fifteen miles off the Mountain, crossed Antelope Valley, Jumped a half dozen fences. Climbed through the Red Hills. Crossed Spring Valley near the Summit Seeding. Climbed twelve thousand feet up Mt. Moriah and killed his fellow wild sheep. HUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No boys and girls this was a political assassination. If the word were to get around that with a little management wild and domestic sheep pose little threat to each other. This would kill the legends and the myths that never the twain should mix. It rallies the troops and brings in mega dollars for the perpetuation of a pack of lies. BUT, without the myth, no money would flow to the coffers for studies and purchases of sheep permits. A new enemy would be needed. The results from autopsy indicate good clean lungs. A leis ion or two from host specific lung Worms. A nose bot or two; but as of now , Mr. Chin died of a gun shot wound. Administered by his so-called caretakers. Rise up fellow hunters. NDOW has  taken some sort of a detour into a politically correct parallel Universe. In the last twenty five years I have witnessed the carnage of wildlife by predators. Predators predators predators, are one thousand times more damaging to the wildlife of this state than the last twelve sheep men in the state. Rise up hunters and take back our wildlife. We either hang together or we will all hang individually as Patrick Henry once said.

Hank Vogler

Hank Vogler sits on the State of Nevada Board of Agriculture, he is a lifetime rancher, sheepherder, is considered one of the foremost Sheep Husbandry experts in the State of Nevada, and once made Baxter Black laugh.