BOISE, Idaho - An emergency public hunt opening today in eastern Idaho probably won't destroy all of the farm-raised elk that escaped from a private hunting reserve last month, state officials acknowledge.

"I'm not expecting we will recover all the animals," Steve Schmidt, Idaho Department of Fish and Game regional supervisor in Idaho Falls, told The Associated Press Monday. "It's likely a number of these animals will never be recovered."

Up to 160 domesticated elk broke through a hole in the wire-net fencing of veterinarian Rex Rammell's Chief Joseph private hunting reserve near the Wyoming border in mid-August. Concerned the farm-raised elk could spread disease and pollute the genetic pool of wild herds, Idaho Gov. Jim Risch issued an emergency order Sept. 7 authorizing state officers to search out and destroy as many of Rammell's loose elk as possible.

But after state agency shooters killed only 15 domestic elk between Sept. 9 and 15, Risch and the Idaho Fish and Game Commission decided to open a special depredation hunt for local private landowners and licensed hunters with valid elk tags. The first of three such hunts starts today and ends Sept. 25, and there is no limit on the number of domesticated elk - identified by U.S. Department of Agriculture livestock eartags - that hunters can kill.

Rammell has vowed to take legal action against Risch and anyone who shoots his elk, although state officials maintain that Risch's executive order exempts eligible hunters from any liability if they kill Rammell's elk.

But Rammell said few if any of his elk are still on the loose. By Monday afternoon, he claimed he had located or recovered all of his escaped elk. He said he was working to chase a group of 40 escaped cow elk from a section of public land to private property. Additionally, he said 10 escaped bulls were corralled on a friend's property and he had recaptured another 45 head. Idaho Fish and Game officials said they had no immediate way of verifying his claim and the emergency hunt would proceed as planned.

"The people are cheering for me and hoping my elk make it down to private ground before we have 50 hunters here in a few hours," Rammell said. "And after this is over, I hope to see Jim Risch never gets elected in this state again."

Fifty hunters who had drawn elk tags for the public land hunting area known as the Teton Zone were selected in a random drawing for first of the three depredation hunts. The other two hunts are scheduled for Sept. 26 through Oct. 2 and Oct. 3 through Oct. 14.

Schmidt said the state hopes private hunters will kill several escaped elk, but because their escape came at the start of the fall breeding season - known as the rut for males and estrus for females - the likelihood the domesticated elk already have mated with wild elk is high.

"The rut is in full swing now," Schmidt said. As a contingency plan, the state is considering additional depredation hunts and winter trapping to cull the farmed elk from wild herds.

A coalition of 28 Idaho hunting and sportsmen's groups said the prospect that Idaho's wild elk bloodlines have already been tainted with farm-raised elk should force the Legislature to outlaw private elk hunting reserves. They're sometimes called "shooter-bull operations," and clients of the businesses pay thousands of dollars to kill domesticated elk inside fenced compounds.

"We are going to relentlessly pursue the elimination of shooter-bull operations in Idaho," said Mark Bell, president of the Idaho Sportsmen's Caucus, whose group will testify Wednesday at a hearing in Bingham County on an application by former NFL star Rulon Jones to launch another shooter-bull operation in eastern Idaho. "These businesses are not allowed in Wyoming, Montana, Oregon and Washington, so Idaho has become a last bastion, and that has allowed this disaster to happen."

Rammell said his domesticated herd is disease-free and are "purebred Rocky Mountain elk" descended from Yellowstone stock that pose no threat to wild herds.

Schmidt said Fish and Game officers will monitor the special hunt to enforce the regulations and determine the number of farm-raised elk taken.

"Hunters should also realize these animals are in thick cover," he said. "Don't expect this to be a turkey shoot."