Yesterday was a sad day for Missouri deer hunters and all of those who enjoy watching the plethora of whitetails that we now have in this state. Legislation was passed in both the Missouri House and Senate that contained language which reclassifies “captive cervids†(pen-raised deer) as livestock. What does this mean? It means that the regulatory jurisdiction over these animals has been taken away from the Missouri Department of Conservation and transferred to the Missouri Department of Agriculture.
While this rearrangement of power may seem trivial to you, its implications are huge. This all has to do with Chronic Wasting Disease, MDC’s proposed regulations to fight the spread of CWD and the deer farmers’ fight to be left virtually unregulated. You have to admit that this was a pretty smart move on the farmers’ part. Why quibble over the language in the regulations? Instead, let’s take the authority away from the agency championing these regulations, therefore, killing the new regulations altogether.
Now you may not like the way MDC has been handling the CWD crisis in our state. You may not like MDC for a million other reasons. However, they are the only government entity doing ANYTHING to prevent the spread of this disease and now their hands have been tied. The new sheriff in town, the Missouri Department of Agriculture, is a lion without teeth. They have no enforcement statutes so they couldn’t enforce any of the regulations MDC proposed even if they wanted to. What baffles me the most about all of this is the MDA testified in both houses of the Assembly that THEY DID NOT WANT the responsibility of regulating the captive cervid industry yet our politicians decided to give it to them anyway.
Fellow deer hunters, we were outfought on this one and it’s our own dang fault. We were quiet and complacent when we should have been raising all kinds of hell with our legislators to not let this happen. At last check, there are around 600,000 of us. There are a little over 200 deer breeding facilities in Missouri and 39 high-fence hunting operations. We had the overwhelming odds but let our apathy and the deer farmers’ determination (and money) win out. So what can we do?
What we can do is fight, and I mean really fight this time. We need to lean on Governor Nixon to veto this legislation and, if it is vetoed, we need to lean on our legislators to not override the veto. I know a lot of you think I’m being melodramatic but the future of our wild deer herd hangs in the balance here.
Several legislators are on record for downplaying the importance of fighting the spread of CWD. They are on record for questioning the link between CWD and pen-raised deer. They continue to spread lies about the regulations MDC had proposed regarding pen-raised deer. They are sorely misinformed and/or blinded by the money dumped into their coffers by the captive cervid industry. We, as deer hunters and stewards of the land, need to get off our lazy backsides and set them straight.
Please contact Governor Nixon’s office and tell him to veto any legislation that will take away the authority of the Missouri Department of Conservation over captive cervids.
Contact the Governor's office
CWD and the captive cervid industry
Darren Haverstick
Avid Hunter
Concerned Citizen
President - United Bowhunters of Missouri
While this rearrangement of power may seem trivial to you, its implications are huge. This all has to do with Chronic Wasting Disease, MDC’s proposed regulations to fight the spread of CWD and the deer farmers’ fight to be left virtually unregulated. You have to admit that this was a pretty smart move on the farmers’ part. Why quibble over the language in the regulations? Instead, let’s take the authority away from the agency championing these regulations, therefore, killing the new regulations altogether.
Now you may not like the way MDC has been handling the CWD crisis in our state. You may not like MDC for a million other reasons. However, they are the only government entity doing ANYTHING to prevent the spread of this disease and now their hands have been tied. The new sheriff in town, the Missouri Department of Agriculture, is a lion without teeth. They have no enforcement statutes so they couldn’t enforce any of the regulations MDC proposed even if they wanted to. What baffles me the most about all of this is the MDA testified in both houses of the Assembly that THEY DID NOT WANT the responsibility of regulating the captive cervid industry yet our politicians decided to give it to them anyway.
Fellow deer hunters, we were outfought on this one and it’s our own dang fault. We were quiet and complacent when we should have been raising all kinds of hell with our legislators to not let this happen. At last check, there are around 600,000 of us. There are a little over 200 deer breeding facilities in Missouri and 39 high-fence hunting operations. We had the overwhelming odds but let our apathy and the deer farmers’ determination (and money) win out. So what can we do?
What we can do is fight, and I mean really fight this time. We need to lean on Governor Nixon to veto this legislation and, if it is vetoed, we need to lean on our legislators to not override the veto. I know a lot of you think I’m being melodramatic but the future of our wild deer herd hangs in the balance here.
Several legislators are on record for downplaying the importance of fighting the spread of CWD. They are on record for questioning the link between CWD and pen-raised deer. They continue to spread lies about the regulations MDC had proposed regarding pen-raised deer. They are sorely misinformed and/or blinded by the money dumped into their coffers by the captive cervid industry. We, as deer hunters and stewards of the land, need to get off our lazy backsides and set them straight.
Please contact Governor Nixon’s office and tell him to veto any legislation that will take away the authority of the Missouri Department of Conservation over captive cervids.
Contact the Governor's office
CWD and the captive cervid industry
Darren Haverstick
Avid Hunter
Concerned Citizen
President - United Bowhunters of Missouri