Your link didn't work, but I found the right one:
http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=679&category=Environment I read the article. Quite remarkable.
What bothers me, is that they just go ahead and euthanize the elk, instead of feeding them and doing research to find out what caused it and what may possibly cure it. They say they are "otherwise healthy", which means that if they would bring them food, they would live .
Also -- how do they know if this may not be just a first stage of this strange disease, if they don't keep the elk alive to see what happens.