We will never get public support because HSUS and fish and game have joined forces to scare the public with half tuths.
Closing Borders
- Thread starter Hollowroad Whitetails
- Start date
Hollowroad Whitetails said:
That's awesome Daniel that you have opened your expertise up to the industry........thanks a bunch! You are spot on about the communication!
Joined Apr 2009
947 Posts | 0+
Annville, Pennsylvania
What I am saying is that lawmakers getting calls from hunters concerned about hunting ability within their state, sort of taking ownership of the wild herd. They have been filled with so many untruths so far that they themselves feel like experts and call their lawmakers for them to do something. By educating the sportsman as to how CWD is transmitted and how much testing we do might help with those calls and maybe even sway the pendulum.
June 6, 2013 Fence opened at quarantined shooting preserve
By CHELSEA DAVIS Courier staff writer The Ottumwa Courier Fri Jun 07, 2013, 08:24 AM CDT BLOOMFIELD — The fence has been opened at a shooting preserve where a deer-killing disease was discovered last year, despite the facility being under quarantine. In the last year, three deer were discovered to be infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD) at Pine Ridge Hunting Lodge, a shooting preserve in Bloomfield. By Jan. 31, the facility was totally depopulated, said Iowa DNR deer biologist Tom Litchfield, meaning every deer was killed and tested for CWD. According to a memorandum of understanding, the fences must be maintained and the gates closed at the facility since it's under quarantine (animals cannot come in nor can they leave). "My understanding is that the gates were opened on the facility within the last week or two, and that also a portion of the fence near the main entrance had been taken down," Litchfield said. So far, it's unknown to IDNR officials who opened the fence at the 330-acre facility. "After visiting the area this week, it's clear the facility in Davis County is in violation of the quarantine, and it needs to be fixed promptly," said state Rep. Curt Hanson, D-Fairfield. "I've shared this information with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and they need to rectify this situation quickly to stop the spread of CWD." Litchfield said the animals at the preserve found to be infected with CWD were originally transported from a Cerro Gordo County breeding facility. "So the real question is, how did the Cerro Gordo breeding facility become infected?" Litchfield said. "That's unknown at this time, and it probably will remain that way." With constant buying, selling and trading of animals, as well as the transportation of semen to artificially inseminate does, there are several avenues for CWD to spread between facilities, he said.
Pine Ridge wasn't the only facility to receive infected deer from Cerro Gordo County, he said. A facility in Pottawatamie County also had reports of CWD-infected deer last fall. At this time, CWD is not known to spread to humans or domestic livestock. The disease is always fatal to deer and elk and to date, none have shown any resistance to it. "The infection rate within a population slowly builds through time, so you have wild populations in Colorado or Wyoming ... with infection rates built up to 40 to 50 percent," he said. "So you have half of a herd out there infected who are ultimately going to die from this disease."
The disease is not known to spread to cattle, he said. "But mad cow disease wasn't known to spread to people either ... until it did," he said. "Then it became a big deal. And this disease [CWD] is in the exact same family of diseases." Litchfield said research has shown that the origin for CWD in deer and elk is "scrapie" — a disease plaguing sheep and goats — which is also the source for BSE, or "mad cow disease." "So you have CWD and BFE [mad cow disease], but the parent origin for those infectious types of prions may be the same disease," he said. A prion is a misfolded strand of protein that, when it infects an animal, causes other protein strands to take its shape and over time manifests itself in the nervous system. It then creates holes in the animal's brain. "With more and more holes in the brain, they steadily lose function until they've lost too much and die," he said. Right now, Litchfield hopes there are zero animals infected with CWD in Davis County. After concentrating CWD surveillance on wild deer in the perimeter of Pine Ridge in the last year, none registered positive for the disease. "That doesn't mean it hasn't escaped into the wild herd, but it's a good indication that if it has, it's a low infection rate," he said. "If we go three to four years without picking anything up outside, we can start to feel more comfortable that it's contained." But the disease has also become a political issue, he said. "Since animals in captive facilities are privately owned, when you talk about total depopulation and quarantine, then people begin to feel maybe their private rights are being trampled on," he said. Staff at Pine Ridge did not immediately return calls for comment. - See more at: http://ottumwacourier.com/local/x74...ntined-shooting-preserve#sthash.MtesJnAF.dpuf
No mention of the decontamination that was performed in April. Once the animals were depopulated, the quarantine was lifted.
By CHELSEA DAVIS Courier staff writer The Ottumwa Courier Fri Jun 07, 2013, 08:24 AM CDT BLOOMFIELD — The fence has been opened at a shooting preserve where a deer-killing disease was discovered last year, despite the facility being under quarantine. In the last year, three deer were discovered to be infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD) at Pine Ridge Hunting Lodge, a shooting preserve in Bloomfield. By Jan. 31, the facility was totally depopulated, said Iowa DNR deer biologist Tom Litchfield, meaning every deer was killed and tested for CWD. According to a memorandum of understanding, the fences must be maintained and the gates closed at the facility since it's under quarantine (animals cannot come in nor can they leave). "My understanding is that the gates were opened on the facility within the last week or two, and that also a portion of the fence near the main entrance had been taken down," Litchfield said. So far, it's unknown to IDNR officials who opened the fence at the 330-acre facility. "After visiting the area this week, it's clear the facility in Davis County is in violation of the quarantine, and it needs to be fixed promptly," said state Rep. Curt Hanson, D-Fairfield. "I've shared this information with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and they need to rectify this situation quickly to stop the spread of CWD." Litchfield said the animals at the preserve found to be infected with CWD were originally transported from a Cerro Gordo County breeding facility. "So the real question is, how did the Cerro Gordo breeding facility become infected?" Litchfield said. "That's unknown at this time, and it probably will remain that way." With constant buying, selling and trading of animals, as well as the transportation of semen to artificially inseminate does, there are several avenues for CWD to spread between facilities, he said.
Pine Ridge wasn't the only facility to receive infected deer from Cerro Gordo County, he said. A facility in Pottawatamie County also had reports of CWD-infected deer last fall. At this time, CWD is not known to spread to humans or domestic livestock. The disease is always fatal to deer and elk and to date, none have shown any resistance to it. "The infection rate within a population slowly builds through time, so you have wild populations in Colorado or Wyoming ... with infection rates built up to 40 to 50 percent," he said. "So you have half of a herd out there infected who are ultimately going to die from this disease."
The disease is not known to spread to cattle, he said. "But mad cow disease wasn't known to spread to people either ... until it did," he said. "Then it became a big deal. And this disease [CWD] is in the exact same family of diseases." Litchfield said research has shown that the origin for CWD in deer and elk is "scrapie" — a disease plaguing sheep and goats — which is also the source for BSE, or "mad cow disease." "So you have CWD and BFE [mad cow disease], but the parent origin for those infectious types of prions may be the same disease," he said. A prion is a misfolded strand of protein that, when it infects an animal, causes other protein strands to take its shape and over time manifests itself in the nervous system. It then creates holes in the animal's brain. "With more and more holes in the brain, they steadily lose function until they've lost too much and die," he said. Right now, Litchfield hopes there are zero animals infected with CWD in Davis County. After concentrating CWD surveillance on wild deer in the perimeter of Pine Ridge in the last year, none registered positive for the disease. "That doesn't mean it hasn't escaped into the wild herd, but it's a good indication that if it has, it's a low infection rate," he said. "If we go three to four years without picking anything up outside, we can start to feel more comfortable that it's contained." But the disease has also become a political issue, he said. "Since animals in captive facilities are privately owned, when you talk about total depopulation and quarantine, then people begin to feel maybe their private rights are being trampled on," he said. Staff at Pine Ridge did not immediately return calls for comment. - See more at: http://ottumwacourier.com/local/x74...ntined-shooting-preserve#sthash.MtesJnAF.dpuf
No mention of the decontamination that was performed in April. Once the animals were depopulated, the quarantine was lifted.
Henry:
I agree with you as one facet to all of this. First thing needs to be done in that respect is to obtain experts to educate, perhaps town hall meetings. My concern with doing that is I believe it will only draw more attention to a negative, something we dont want to do. My reasoning is that there are so many unknowns regarding CWD that it seems to me that no matter who we get to state it one way, there will be experts to state it another way and even our own experts will have to agree to certain negstives associated with the disease, including the fact that the transportation of farm raised deer can pass CWD to wild deer. I don't think anyone disputes that. When people hear that, nothing else will matter. The hunting public is a huge voting block and they do not agree with what we do, regardless of CWD, they just don't like what we do. So, the battle would be against the current, one I think we will never win. The fight is on our legal right to free trade and interstate commerce.
With that said, we do have to make attempts to improve our image as an industry, showing the public that we offer a real opportunity for hunters to make their dreams come true. That we provide a service to those who would otherwise not have the ability to do so. Every charitable hunt given to a child with a terminal illness or disabled person should make the front cover of every single deer farming publication, not a picure of a deer as an advertisement. I have been advocating this for years. The public needs to see that our industry is not what they believe it to be and we have really great people who are making dreams come true. Perhaps as an industry we need to hire the services of or create a position and hire an in-house public relations officer. In fact we should have a team of PR personnel. The industry needs to unite.
On another note, did you get my email regarding darts? I need to re-supply. Thanks
I agree with you as one facet to all of this. First thing needs to be done in that respect is to obtain experts to educate, perhaps town hall meetings. My concern with doing that is I believe it will only draw more attention to a negative, something we dont want to do. My reasoning is that there are so many unknowns regarding CWD that it seems to me that no matter who we get to state it one way, there will be experts to state it another way and even our own experts will have to agree to certain negstives associated with the disease, including the fact that the transportation of farm raised deer can pass CWD to wild deer. I don't think anyone disputes that. When people hear that, nothing else will matter. The hunting public is a huge voting block and they do not agree with what we do, regardless of CWD, they just don't like what we do. So, the battle would be against the current, one I think we will never win. The fight is on our legal right to free trade and interstate commerce.
With that said, we do have to make attempts to improve our image as an industry, showing the public that we offer a real opportunity for hunters to make their dreams come true. That we provide a service to those who would otherwise not have the ability to do so. Every charitable hunt given to a child with a terminal illness or disabled person should make the front cover of every single deer farming publication, not a picure of a deer as an advertisement. I have been advocating this for years. The public needs to see that our industry is not what they believe it to be and we have really great people who are making dreams come true. Perhaps as an industry we need to hire the services of or create a position and hire an in-house public relations officer. In fact we should have a team of PR personnel. The industry needs to unite.
On another note, did you get my email regarding darts? I need to re-supply. Thanks
SOURCE: WFTV Eyewitness News
Florida Fish and Wildlife commissioners passed a deer import ban to protect the state's deer population from a deadly, mad cow-like disease. Meeting in Pensacola early Friday, the commissioners heard from experts about Chronic Wasting Disease.
Florida is one of only seven states where the disease has not been found.
The ban prohibits owners of deer farms and hunting preserves from importing deer from other states.
Experts said the disease spreads quickly among herds and cannot be treated or prevented. Opponents of the ban say it could hurt business and create unnecessary bureaucracy.
The commission voted unanimously to prohibit deer farms, hunting preserves and others from importing the animals to stop the spread of chronic wasting disease.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Florida Fish and Wildlife commissioners passed a deer import ban to protect the state's deer population from a deadly, mad cow-like disease. Meeting in Pensacola early Friday, the commissioners heard from experts about Chronic Wasting Disease.
Florida is one of only seven states where the disease has not been found.
The ban prohibits owners of deer farms and hunting preserves from importing deer from other states.
Experts said the disease spreads quickly among herds and cannot be treated or prevented. Opponents of the ban say it could hurt business and create unnecessary bureaucracy.
The commission voted unanimously to prohibit deer farms, hunting preserves and others from importing the animals to stop the spread of chronic wasting disease.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
I just visited the ACA website. Why is it that there are only 29 organizations involved in the Alliance? I didn't see all of the state associations or even the North American Deer Farmers Association on there? Am I missing something? A consolidation of the industry is obviously very important.
Daniel, The problem is the panel also did not listen to experts. Under the comment section to the Federal Rule, APHIS/USDA comments that CWD is "a low infectious disease". Yet in your news article it quotes "the disease spreads quickly". How can the "experts" say one thing, and the research show the opposite? Apparently the panel had blinders on!!
Gary
Gary
That's the statement that caught my eye. Their choice of words is both careless and reckless.
If everyone does not switch to offense instead of just doing damage control the industry will be gone much sooner than already scheduled. Time for "everyone" to start file lawsuits.
I agree, but we are struggling to keep our own lawsuit afloat. Just sent another check, which brings our total attorney fees to $367,000. Not to mention the $150,000+ in deer feed since the quarantine began. Because we do not feel it practical to expand our breeding operation (only to be left with more ground quarantined) our pastures are overgrazed and we are feeding hay every day.
The state is intending to appeal the rulings as discussed after our hearings. We are not one of those multi millionaires that "invested" in this business, but rather it is a business that we have built over the past 20 years to get it where it is today. We have lost 20 years of investments and property because of the CWD Standards and government overreach.
Taking our land for five years minimum and quarantining our animals five years (or more) is not the answer that anyone can live with. We cannot sustain another five years of these types of expenses.
To set the record straight for everyone, the Iowa Department of Ag only offered for us to take our animals to slaughter and hand us a bill to do it. Leaving us to pay for the CWD testing and the hauling. If anyone can call this offer lucrative and suggest that we were greedy for not accepting it, well then I guess we are greedy.
Our original offer (July 2012) to the Department of Ag and DNR was to allow us animal movement from our breed facility to our hunting preserve, we would hunt them out and destroy any remaining animals and be done. The USDA sent an email to Iowa Ag last September stating that this movement would be permissible with some reasonable risk assessment practices. These facts are in our hearing transcripts if anyone wishes for me to copy and paste on this site.
On a more positive note, we are very grateful for the donations through Whitetail Exchange and the IWDA Association. Just yesterday we received a check from a Mr. and Mrs. Charles Blain of South Dakota. These people are NOT deer farmers, but are hoping to be in the near future. "We have been reading about your dilemma and want to do something to help." - Again, we are very grateful and amazed by the people who are reaching out to us.
I am hoping that you will join us at the USAHA Conference October 19-23 in San Diego. You do not need to be in attendance for the entire conference. We will have opportunities to discuss these issues openly with the state vets and USDA policy makers and, of course, the wildlife agency representatives.
Here is the website to register:
http://www.usaha.org/Meetings/AnnualMeeting2013.aspx
We were able to make a difference last year and will have the opportunity again this year. This is VERY IMPORTANT. Every state needs to have a representative and more than one would be preferred. We have to show that we are concerned as a "united" industry.
Rhonda
The state is intending to appeal the rulings as discussed after our hearings. We are not one of those multi millionaires that "invested" in this business, but rather it is a business that we have built over the past 20 years to get it where it is today. We have lost 20 years of investments and property because of the CWD Standards and government overreach.
Taking our land for five years minimum and quarantining our animals five years (or more) is not the answer that anyone can live with. We cannot sustain another five years of these types of expenses.
To set the record straight for everyone, the Iowa Department of Ag only offered for us to take our animals to slaughter and hand us a bill to do it. Leaving us to pay for the CWD testing and the hauling. If anyone can call this offer lucrative and suggest that we were greedy for not accepting it, well then I guess we are greedy.
Our original offer (July 2012) to the Department of Ag and DNR was to allow us animal movement from our breed facility to our hunting preserve, we would hunt them out and destroy any remaining animals and be done. The USDA sent an email to Iowa Ag last September stating that this movement would be permissible with some reasonable risk assessment practices. These facts are in our hearing transcripts if anyone wishes for me to copy and paste on this site.
On a more positive note, we are very grateful for the donations through Whitetail Exchange and the IWDA Association. Just yesterday we received a check from a Mr. and Mrs. Charles Blain of South Dakota. These people are NOT deer farmers, but are hoping to be in the near future. "We have been reading about your dilemma and want to do something to help." - Again, we are very grateful and amazed by the people who are reaching out to us.
I am hoping that you will join us at the USAHA Conference October 19-23 in San Diego. You do not need to be in attendance for the entire conference. We will have opportunities to discuss these issues openly with the state vets and USDA policy makers and, of course, the wildlife agency representatives.
Here is the website to register:
http://www.usaha.org/Meetings/AnnualMeeting2013.aspx
We were able to make a difference last year and will have the opportunity again this year. This is VERY IMPORTANT. Every state needs to have a representative and more than one would be preferred. We have to show that we are concerned as a "united" industry.
Rhonda
Here's to the people in Florida that testified and sided with the HSUS and Fish and Game!!
http://protecttheharvest.com/hsus-a...s-in-virginia-trying-to-outlaw-fox-preserves/
http://protecttheharvest.com/hsus-a...s-in-virginia-trying-to-outlaw-fox-preserves/
Hollowroad Whitetails said:
Daniel, What does the law state about government employees making "careless and reckless" statements, when their intent is to destroy or severely cripple an industry?
GO: Their statements alone are not actionable unless directed at a particular person/entity. Their statements will, however, be evidence of a complete lack of understanding of what CWD is and destroy their credibility. The action to be taken is a challenge to the border closing itself as an unconstitutional restriction on interstate commerce. The one article I read stated that there are ONLY seven states where CWD has not been found. If that is true (and it wasn't clear if Hawaii and/or Alaska was included in that number) then that strengthens our position that free-ranging deer are spreading the disease and so closure of borders to captive cervids is an unreasonable restriction and clear example of government overreaching. The disease origin will likely never be discovered and until they can prevent wild deer from free ranging among different states, closing borders, is, I feel, a violation of our rights. It makes no sense. Even if every state closed its borders, eventually, CWD will be found in every single state. In fact, it's probably already in many, just never discovered.
Daniel
Here is the name of a law firm in Dublin Ohio that helped us out when we where issued a Dept. of Ag. order to destroy 2 of our deer because of trace backs from the CWD case in PA. they are an agricultural law firm and have cases in the past on scrapies and honey bees when the state was trying to destroy honey producers. They worked with us and got us time enough for the DNA results to come back and clear our deer. I am not sure if they would be of any help, but sure doesn't hurt.
If I can be of any help please give me a call.
Joe Balas 513-515-6216
Barrett Easterday Cunningham & Eselgroth LLP
Dublin Ohio
Here is the name of a law firm in Dublin Ohio that helped us out when we where issued a Dept. of Ag. order to destroy 2 of our deer because of trace backs from the CWD case in PA. they are an agricultural law firm and have cases in the past on scrapies and honey bees when the state was trying to destroy honey producers. They worked with us and got us time enough for the DNA results to come back and clear our deer. I am not sure if they would be of any help, but sure doesn't hurt.
If I can be of any help please give me a call.
Joe Balas 513-515-6216
Barrett Easterday Cunningham & Eselgroth LLP
Dublin Ohio
Joined Apr 2009
1,428 Posts | 0+
Northeast Wisconsin
I was cleaning out my computer files and found this letter Gary wrote and personally read and presented in Texas when they were going to close their borders back in 2005. I remember he had hardly any time at all to prepare for this hearing and flew down there because he thought appearing in person was important. The same baloney going on today....