Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

No more baiting or feeding deer in the lower peninsula...

I don't see how the DNR is going to be able to really enforce this heavily but we'll see.

I feed and bait and still don't get anything....we'll see


Thoughts?


Lower Peninsula deer baiting, feeding banned after one case of chronic wasting disease is found.

LANSING -- State officials are prohibiting deer baiting or feeding throughout the Lower Peninsula after they discovered a captive white-tailed deer in a small Kent County herd has Michigan's first case of chronic wasting disease.

The precautionary measure will change hunting practices during the upcoming firearm and archery deer seasons. Baiting and feeding have become common practice among hunters.

Officials also quarantined all 580 of Michigan's privately owned farms, hunting ranches and hobby facilities where deer, elk and moose are raised and kept in Michigan. Neither live animals nor their carcasses can be moved off these facilities, Agriculture Director Don Koivisto said.


There's no evidence chronic wasting disease can spread to humans, cattle or other domestic animals -- nor that the disease has spread to deer in the wild. But there's obvious concern it could infect wild deer -- as has been the case in Wisconsin -- with costly and devastating results for the deer population.

Koivisto said veterinarians and wildlife experts worked all last weekend determining what other deer may have come in contact with the diseased animal, a 3-year-old doe born on the farm where it was kept. Audits of the farm's records showed none of its deer has escaped and there have been no violations of regulations, he said.

He said officials also are reviewing the records of five other facilities -- in Kent, Montcalm and Osceola counties -- that exchanged animals with the one where the sick deer was found.

"We take this disease very seriously, and are using every resource available to us to implement response measures and stop the spread of this disease," Koivisto said.

He said state law prevents officials from releasing the names of the facilities under investigation.

Chronic wasting disease is a fatal neurological disorder affecting deer, elk and moose. Most cases have been in western states, but it has spread eastward in recent years to some midwestern and eastern states, including Illinois and Wisconsin.

Infected animals show unusual behavior and suffer progressive weight loss and debilitation before they die. Research suggests it is spread through proteins, called prions, in saliva or other body fluids of infected animals, state veterinarian Steve Halsted said. Contaminated soil in an area can remain an infection source for long periods -- maybe years -- making it hard to eradicate, Halsted said.

The natural resources and agriculture departments established protocols for stemming a Michigan outbreak of the disease in 2002, after it was detected in wild deer in Wisconsin.

They'll require deer hunters in nine townships around the Kent County farm -- Tyrone, Solon, Nelson, Sparta, Algoma, Courtland, Alpine, Plainfield and Cannon -- to bring deer they shoot to Department of Natural Resources checkpoints.

DNR Director Rebecca Humphries said hunters elsewhere in Michigan also will be asked to bring slain deer to DNR stations voluntarily, so officials can take samples and check for any spread of the disease.

Humphries said the DNR had tested more than 21,000 wild deer in Michigan since 2002 -- 248 of them in Kent County -- without finding a single case of chronic wasting disease.

The department will step up that effort, testing 8,000 wild deer in this hunting season. It tested 1,500 wild deer throughout the state last season. There will be even more testing of wild deer in the area immediately surrounding the Kent County farm.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080826/METRO/808260366/1409/METRO

You know, I can understand this reaction for Mad Cow. That 'has' jumped species. For something they in fact admit has never jumped before, no; that's just something I'd expect from 'obamaesque' people. :D

Hunting over bait is cheating and should be illegal.

Don't feel to bad, the ban is coming to WI soon as well. Its just a matter of time. Not that I really care (I don't hunt) but you should see the hunters go wild every time talk of the ban ramps up.

I didn't even realize that there were places that you could hunt deer over bait. Just to the south of you it has always been against the law with the only exception being a salt block.
You guys need to get better deer herds. ;)

I didn't even realize that there were places that you could hunt deer over bait. Just to the south of you it has always been against the law with the only exception being a salt block.
You guys need to get better deer herds. ;)

You can't even use food plots? I know food plots are getting really big around here, with anticipation of the feeding ban. They seem like a great idea, just VERY expensive to put in.

Yes, you can use food plots. But first I would have to own my own land and at $2000 plus an acre in my area I just don't see that happening. :mad: The problem where I live is there are too many big bucks. Out of state people with too much money have put land prices through the roof and all of the farmers lease their land out to hunters anymore. It's next to impossible to find anyplace to hunt anymore unless you want to go onto public hunting land and take your life in your own hands.:rolleyes:

I love deer meat, what happens if we eat the contaminated meat?:eek::confused: How do you know which one's are infected without taking them to a lab?

I love deer meat, what happens if we eat the contaminated meat?:eek::confused: How do you know which one's are infected without taking them to a lab?

Don't worry, it only showed up on a PRIVATE FARM. So Jenny and the state wet themselves and now have an excuse to add an extra revenue :rolleyes:


So...what happens when one neighbor is pissed off at the other, goes to their property, but down feed and then calls DNR saying their neighbor is feeding....

There will be a lot of dead bodies if that start happening..

I live just north of Lansing in a rural area. They took 700 plus car deer reports last year. I see herds of deer and turkey year around. There is no need to bait. Just go out and actually hunt and you will bag a deer.