Commercial deer breeding-Right or wrong?

Hi all,

Let me start by saying I am a die hard deer hunter, outdoorsman, fisherman, and spend most of my time involved in some sort of hunting or fishing related activitiy. If I'm not hunting then I'm thinking about it 365 days a year! I respect others opinions and understand we all may have differences in the way we hunt. I would just like to see others opinions on these deer breeding or deer farmer operations. I personally think it's wrong and shouldn't be allowed for commercial purposes. If you try to read some contents online, you'll know the terrible result. If someone was doing it for personal enjoyment then maybe.

I was watching Deer and Wildlife Stories with Keith Warren and that's all the show is about, show casing deer farms. Some of these bucks cannot even run because their racks are too big and heavy. I assume they grow these deer to eventually be sold for hunts at several thousand dollars a pop. Who could enjoy that? How is that hunting? High fence or not, it isn't natural or fair. Sorry to be ranting but it just struck me wrong, maybe I'm wrong and too "old school". Let me know how some of you feel about it.

Thanks
Gary

Isn't all hunting no mater what for personal enjoyment? The problem with today's world is if it doesn't fit your way of life or beliefs it WRONG well that what makes the world go round! If you don't like something then don't do it! If you don't like professional baseball don't go and watch. If you don't like beer don't do to the bar and drink and if you don't like preserve hunting don't go! Maybe if your a Real Fisherman you should NOT fish walleys in MN because most of them are raised in rearing ponds and STOCKED in the lakes by the DNR! Maybe everyone should worry about their own lives and leave others alone! Just my 2 CENT's

Well put Simonson!!!!!!! When I first read this guys post, my first thought was, OK who goes into a deer farming web site and makes a post like this. I instantly knew this person just likes to start stuff. I mean I don't go down to my local Bar and ask them if they think drinking and driving is OK or not? Maybe a bad example but I'm sure you get what I mean.

Deer farming for most is a way of life and how some people make their living. For others it might be a hobby or because they love the whitetail deer. For what ever reason we as farmers choose to raise and sell these majestic creatures is our business and our legal right. Just because someone doesn't agree with it doesn't make it wrong. There are so many examples of things that I might not think are right but you might and I choose to keep my mouth shut and participate in the things that I do agree with. If only people would put as much effort into minding their own business and not try to bring attention to themselves.

I feel that Keith Warren does a great job of showing what a deer farmer is and how we as deer farmers are passionate in regards to what we do. In his video's you can see how each farmer has taken on the roll of farmer, veterinarian, business man and so on and so on just for one reason, and that my friend is because of the whitetail deer.

I bet if you asked every farmer on this site if they hunted the whitetail deer before they became a deer farmer, I bet you would see that most of them have. Since I have become a deer farmer I have become not only a better deer hunter but a selective hunter. Farming deer has taught me so much more than I could of ever imagined.

As far as the terrible results that you speak of, I cant say I know of any.

This guy needs looks at all the non typical record book bucks. If one was running down the trail opening day he’d empty every bullet in his gun. The reason deer don’t get this big very often in the wild is because people like him don’t let em get old enough. I don’t even think rifle hunting is a challenge any more so I choose to bow hunt. Just like every business, there is good and bad. I guarantee if someone opened a well managed preserve and let this guy hunt for free, he’d be there tomorrow. I grew up bow hunting a 400 acre island in the middle of the Missouri River and never once did I get one cornered. He needs to Stop worrying about how every one else does and just keep hunting the way you like.

It doesn’t seem possible, but there are several versions of the truth. When it comes to the subject of deer farming, state and federal wildlife agencies voice their version of the “truth”. As deer farmers our only version of the “truth” that reaches much of the public is through Keith Warrens, deer and wildlife stories. The two are radically different stories. Thanks for Keith and his team for telling our side of the story.

To the originator of this thread:

If you were to believe the information from most of the game departments, “The whitetail, mule deer and elk herds of North America are doomed. CWD will be everywhere and all deer will die.” As they state it is a highly transmissible disease. But, what are the solutions for the wild herd? Vaccination is not possible. Programs have been attempted to capture and test wild deer for CWD. And to go back and destroy the positives. Other studies are being conducted on CWD resistance. CWD resistance is beginning to look like a possibility. Deer of some genetic groups may live longer than their expected lifetime (in the wild) before dying of the CWD. Resistance to scrapie has been studied and used in programs in sheep to overcome the disease in the USA.

But how can we increase the percentage of deer in the wild with the CWD resistant gene. Agencies could tranquilize and test and tag, and go back and kill deer that test more susceptible to CWD. Programs like this would be very slow, but they would be very lucrative for the game agencies. Projects like this would be very, very expensive and be great for public relations for the game agencies while costing the tax payers hundreds of millions of dollars. Alternatively, the agencies could start captive breeding programs to propagate the resistant animals and restock them into the wild. But this would be game farming and game farming is wrong (according to the game agencies). In order for these agencies to begin raising these animals for release, they would have to construct fence and facilities and capture deer from the wild and test them for genetic resistance and begin breeding programs. A long and involved process, but again with the US taxpayers flipping the bill it would be very profitable for the game agencies.

Alternatively, if there was a source of disease tested deer, deer that have been tested for Tuberculosis, Brucellosis, and have been monitored for CWD for decades, then why couldn’t they be used to improve the CWD resistance of the wild herd? As the originator of the post had stated, many of these deer have huge racks and may not survive in the wild. That is debatable, but we have seen repeatedly that when large bucks are turned into hunting preserves and are not shot that year, that they do survive. Often due to a nutritional factors these bucks will grow smaller racks when under ‘less than farmed’ conditions.

So why not release pregnant females of a planned mating that would produce fawns of the desired CWD resistance? The main reason is that game agencies would never patronize deer farmers. Remember, we are evil, nasty, disease spreading, capitalists. To put it bluntly, they HATE us. It is their mission to put us out of business. We are the most regulated form of agriculture.

If the above scenario (of breeding and releasing deer into the wild) were to happen, it would be from public pressure. The message would have to come from the public, from the environmentalists and the hunters, the message cannot come from the deer farmers.

It's no more wrong than any type of farming... Corn, Cattle etc. Not many people in today's world can abide the law and survive without farming.

As for breeding for bigger antlers... Ok we breed for bigger cattle, better marbled meat, faster horses, faster dogs etc. How can anyone judge the preference in antlers?