Not even an obscure Zoom meeting of the Wyoming Animal Damage Management Board could escape 2020 unscathed.

As about 16 state and federal officials discussed the compensation offered to producers who lose livestock to wolves in certain parts of the state, their progress was briefly slowed by an outburst from an unknown person in attendance at Tuesday’s virtual meeting.

The board was carefully considering how to respond to a portion of a four-part comment on the compensation program when a man only known as “Robert” voted nay. His vote went largely unnoticed, being in the vast minority. But as the board considered their reply to another portion of the public comment, Robert interrupted with a largely unintelligible string of profanities and racial slurs.

While there have been many documented cases of people crashing Zoom meetings since the start of the pandemic, it was a bit shocking to most in attendance that someone found the group replying to comments on wolf depredation compensation within Wyoming’s predator zone — let alone spent time attempting to sabotage the meeting.

It was about 14 minutes into the board’s discussion that the profanities and slurs began.

“Oh good, that’s handy,” Doug Miyamoto, co-chair of the board and director of the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, sarcastically remarked.

Jerry Johnson of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who was administering the meeting, eventually was forced to remove Robert and the board continued after apologies and a couple chuckles.

“That was a first for me,” Johnson said.

The board spent an hour deliberating responses to the comments they’d received, which largely asked how the board will compensate ranchers for the damage wolves deal to livestock in Wyoming’s predator zone. Most of the state falls within the zone, in which wolves are simply treated as predators and can be killed on sight. Wolves are managed as a trophy game animal, with limits on hunting, inside the designated “trophy zone,” which is largely near Yellowstone National Park. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department pays claims for damage that wolves cause inside the trophy zone.

But the board budget for payments in the predator zone is down 20% for the 2021-22 biennium, as part of state budget cuts. The previous budget was $45,000 and now stands at $36,000. Despite the number of wolf conflicts decreasing in the past two years, Johnson said he still expects the full allotment to be used before revenue is renewed.

Before ending the meeting, Johnson alerted the board that Robert was still on hand and was asking if he could make further comments.

“No,” Miyamoto quickly replied. “He’s said plenty.”

Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik concurred, saying Robert had “demonstrated he was not able to act in a way appropriate for the meeting” — ending what is normally a laborious, but necessary task accomplished with little excitement.