Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Funded Release in Wind Cave

They were also able to give 55 thousand to close down private hunting of deer and elk in Montana in 2000.

Yes the RMEF was making a big deal about how CWD would kill all of Montana's elk and deer herds.  Quite a turn around when only the hunters would benefit from such a stupid idea of releasing sick CWD animals from the parks into the wild.


Just proves these people not afraid of CWD and only using it to harm the deer and elk industry and it's people.

I have been in this worthless CWD program since 2000 when we were told when we reached five years in the program we would have relief from testing all the animals over 18 months.  I have been a closed herd since 2004 just because we had no business left as our harvest facilities were closed down from a public vote that said we couldn't kill an animal behind a eight foot fence with a third party.  Well we all know how this turned out we now have to test 12 month and older animals.  Here in Montana we have to have a Vet do this work.  Nothing bad about this but when other States can let their elk and deer owners do the collection and send them in it seems we are always at the mercy of our own State.  We have paided from 100 to 300 a test over the years.  I have tested over 2500 animals for CWD.  Any body with an ounce of brain power can see that was a lot of money lost to support government jobs.


I just harvested forty whitetail deer for personal use for all of my family and got the bill for CWD testing which was 4360.  I'll bet there isn't one cattle man that would allow this abuse and mad cow does go into people and kill them.  You have to admit this disease is really just used to harm the industry and it's people by over regulation and money spent by the game farmer.  If this is really so important the government would be paying for the CWD test to protect the wildlife but that doesn't happen because these charges are in place to hurt us.  If government had to pay the bill we would no longer be required to test for CWD because it really isn't important and there is nothing DNR people can do to stop CWD.  Reproduction by deer would cover any lost by CWD.  The real threat to deer is EHD and these Fish and Game people do nothing for that.  Fact is all they can do is watch animals die for whatever reason.  You don't see DNR doing anything to get a live test or vaccine to protect the resource.

Rhonda, Has anyone ever asked this Jeff Vonk about his thoughts on CWD?

Jeff Vonk is a huge Wildlife Federation supporter here in SD. Every wildlife species in the state has suffered since he has been our secretary of Game Fish & Parks. I was at a commission meeting a year ago and he got up and gave a long speech about all the great things the Wildlife Federation and Game Fish & Parks are doing together. They sit together at all commission meetings and any committee meeting during our legislature that has to do with hunting and discourage anything that would allow non-residents to obtain deer and waterfowl licenses. The Federation has NEVER brought anything to the table other then they are residents of the state. If you can "manage" to take a 71,000 acre HIGH FENCE state park that used to have over 1,000 elk to less then 150 during your 10 years in office and STILL can't figure out why the numbers keep going down, it pretty much puts in perspective his inability and inexperience in managing game. The Wind cave elk herd release is his way of doing damage control and taking the pressure off from people discouraged about the dismal deer and elk populations through out the Black Hills which is mostly national forest and open to public hunting. Almost all of the public land has been wiped out because of the over abundance of antlerless tags in both deer and elk to the point that fawn recruitment is far less then the number of animals being shot yearly.

I really fail to see why the fed and state agencies can move and expose further wildlife from a estimated herd with a infection rate of 40% out to the free range and not be help to USDA protocals??? Why are they above the law??  And thanks wildlife federation for not jumping in on that matter I guess cwd is not a threat to the public trust as they claim it to be is it!! But let one deer in a facility be tested and the reporters and qdmrs and wildlife federation bunch state now the state is contaminated with cwd and start banging their cwd dinner bell . This honestly makes no legal sense to me at all, They should be held to the same guidelines as imposed on private land owners, But now release their infected animals on state and public lands to potentially infect others , Again it makes no sense with Vonk and his lack of professional sense approach to wildlife management.  This needs to be brought to the national media attention and be held accountable for such a stupid maneuver.

I just got a email from Missouri DNR stating how happy they were about the new requirements to protect the wild herds from CWD from game farms in Missouri.  It just shows what a State can do as they now require all animals six months and older to be tested for CWD if dead.  We have lost ground with the new Federal help on CWD.  Going from 18 months to Federal requirements of twelve months and now Missouri has animals tested at six months.  To my knowledge no animal has ever tested for CWD at six months.  It just keeps getting better all the time.

Deer MGR 200988121413578132



I really fail to see why the fed and state agencies can move and expose further wildlife from a estimated herd with a infection rate of 40% out to the free range and not be help to USDA protocals??? Why are they above the law??  And thanks wildlife federation for not jumping in on that matter I guess cwd is not a threat to the public trust as they claim it to be is it!! But let one deer in a facility be tested and the reporters and qdmrs and wildlife federation bunch state now the state is contaminated with cwd and start banging their cwd dinner bell . This honestly makes no legal sense to me at all, They should be held to the same guidelines as imposed on private land owners, But now release their infected animals on state and public lands to potentially infect others , Again it makes no sense with Vonk and his lack of professional sense approach to wildlife management.  This needs to be brought to the national media attention and be held accountable for such a stupid maneuver.




Again untill someone from the public sector starts suing that state for allowing infected animals out into public hunting grounds nothing will ever be brought to a head.  Lawsuits are the only things that opens peoples eyes to what the truth is!


 


Jack there has been a couple reports of fawns 6 months and less being positive.

John R Fischer caused the problem when the standards were being negotiated. He is the QDMA's most educated pawn.

Why didn't our industry leadership take a firmer stand against the over regulation of our animals years ago? The regulatory programs we now face are an injustice. How long has it been since a deer farm had brucellosis? Yet we all are required to test 100% of our adults if we move them intrastate. No other livestock is required to do this. A single blood test of the animals being moved should be sufficient. The required TB accreditation of our entire herd for intrastate movement also goes way beyond the regulation required for intrastate movement of any other kind of livestock. I believe some of our highly paid industry leaders involved in negotiating these standards and programs have been naive and lacked the foresight to see the big picture. When semen was selling for $10,000+ and doe for $50,000 it was easy to say ok to the fees associated with all the regulation. We could all pay the associated vet bills much easier when the markets were strong. We are facing tough times and we need tough leadership. Now closed boarders and unfair regulation are weakening us all.

It is time to go to court!

Jonathan,  I just finished my 3 year, TB blood tests this week, on almost 280 head.   My Vet. asked me why we were testing.  I said we were told by the state we needed be TB tested to move over state lines.  He said Minnesota is classified as  a "free accredited state".  That means ALL livestock in Minnesota should be accredited.  Cattle don't need to be tested to leave Minnesota, why do deer?  Jerilee, as a Vet., can you answer this question for me?  My Vet. thinks this is BS.

Gary

This over regulation is the result of compromising by our leadership who have lacked something when standing up to the likes of John R Fischer during negotiation. When a former head of an animal rights group heads up the government funded group in charge of overseeing these programs we are screwed and pissing in the wind. It is time to let the courts decide if this over regulation is B.S.

Gary,


When did they stop TB/Bangs testing cattle to go across state lines.  I know when I graduated they did.  Since I did no cattle work I'm not sure when this change took place.  We need to see how it was approached by the cattle industry to stop the testing.  We are mandated by the USDA to do so, but how many positives of either in farmed cervid has their been, and if so when???? these are questions we need to be asking to have ammunition to try to get relief from testing.

Minnesota and Iowa are TB free and accredited states.  I believe Wisconsin is also.  An accredited state does no have to test cattle that leaves the state.  There was an issue 7-8 years ago in NW Minnesota when they found that some wild deer and cattle from Texas had TB.  We lost our accreditation for a while until they were all disposed of.