JACKSON (WNE) — For the time being, chronic wasting disease is “less of a concern” than a host of other nasties to dogs that like sniffing out and gnawing on the remains of wild animals.

The other, more pressing concerns include picking up botulism from gut piles or ingesting a piece of bone that doesn’t digest well and gets stuck in the animal’s intestines.

That’s according to Dr. Dan Forman, the now-retired community veterinarian who spent decades at Spring Creek Animal Hospital. 

Forman said as much when state and local officials reported an uptick in illegal carcass dumping this fall, a change that came after the Teton County Transfer Station increased fees for disposing of dead animals. 

The fees, game wardens said, have disincentivized hunters from bringing carcasses to the landfill. Instead, spinal cords and gut piles have been turning up along byways like Henry’s Road south of Jackson and Emily’s Pond on the Snake River levee.

Forman said there are no documented cases of domesticated animals picking up chronic wasting disease, a neurological condition that’s always fatal in deer, elk and moose. In a lab, however, researchers have shown that some primates can pick up the malady, so Forman said it’s not out of the question that domesticated dogs could pick up the disease.

Still, Forman said there are other, documented concerns about chewing on bones that pose a greater danger to dogs, like failing to digest a bone fragment. 

So though pooches might be proud of their finds, Forman recommends people gently take animal remains away from their pets.

“Give them a Milk Bone instead,” he said.