BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The University of Idaho refuses to release identities of those investigating whether the head of its Caine Veterinary Teaching and Research Center in Caldwell suppressed a 1994 study on bighorn sheep deaths.
The school’s lawyers said Wednesday the names of people scrutinizing university employees like Caine leader Marie Bulgin amounted to "personnel information relating to a public employee" and are exempt from Idaho public records laws.
The Associated Press had requested investigators’ names.
The UI began its probe in June after media reports of a 1994 study by some of the Caine center’s own staff, including Bulgin’s daughter, that determined bighorns likely catch fatal diseases from domestic sheep on the open range.
Bulgin, a former Idaho Wool Growers Association president, has long contended in federal court and the Idaho Legislature no such evidence existed, as part of her efforts to support ranching and grazing on public land.
Marie Bulgin says she didn’t know of the 1994 study until recently.

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