Definition of Government Hysteria: One Sick Deer Causing Feeding Ban
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Northern Michigan businesses that depend on sales of corn, carrots, sugar beets and other deer feed are taking a direct hit.
As if the State of Michigan didn't have enough problems, now a deer feeding ban comes along to deliver another blow.
News reports are that some Michigan deer hunters are frustrated by new rules which may hurt their chances of bagging a deer this fall.
But the idea that deer hunters will have a tougher time if they are unable to feed deer is not even the major part of the equation. Hunters are willing to take their chances.
It's the economy, stupid!
Northern Michigan businesses that depend on sales of corn, carrots, sugar beets and other deer feed are taking a direct hit -- from a bureaucrat hysterical over one dead deer in a private breeding farm.
I guess those guys sitting around the campfire or on bar stools grousing about the ineptitude of the Department of Natural Resources were right all along.
"In Michigan I would guess that over 85 percent of bow hunters hunt over bait and 70 percent of gun hunters hunt over bait," writes Traverse City blogger Michael St. Peter, a Realtor. The ban also includes mineral licks and salt blocks. He adds: "Local mom and pop stores, gas stations and farmers sell tons of carrots, corn, apples, and sugar beets every year specifically for deer. Not only do people buy the bait to hunt over they also use it to view deer in their yards and to supplement the deer during the hard winter months." Our local legislators, Sen. Jim Barcia and Rep. Jeff Mayes, are standing up for common sense in calling for an immediate end to the ban before more economic damage is done.
Small farmers, gas stations, convenience stores, etc., who often are marginal operations, will suffer severe economic losses if the ban continues through this deer season.
"I know guys whose largest source of income during the year comes from feed sales in deer season," said AuGres Bill, who stays in touch with such information because he is an avid hunter.
Without the ability to go north to buy feed and place it in the woods, thousands of hunters will be deterred from pursuing their hobbies. And, less trips north equal less money spent in businesses from sporting goods shops, hardware and grocery stores, bars and restaurants and other businesses.
"The total loss to northern businesses will no doubt be in the hundreds of millions of dollars," said AuGres Bill, who in real life is a self-described "bean counter."
The Michigan Department of Agriculture Department has arbitrarily outlawed the practice of attracting deer with piles of feed illegal this fall. A single case of Chronic Wasting Disease, discovered in a deer on a private breeding farm in Kent County, has been given as the reason for the ban. The illness reportedly is similar to Mad Cow Disease.
Mary Dettloff of the state agriculture department states:
"What hunters needs to understand is baiting deer causes them to congregate in an unnatural way, around a bait pile. And, this disease...is spread through saliva and fecal matter, which would both be present around a bait pile."
That kind of thinking ignores the fact that deer often congregate all by themselves; it's called yarding.
Agriculture department officials are testing 300 wild deer for chronic wasting disease. If no more cases are found, the ban will be lifted. But the question is: when? After deer season?
Ms. Dettloff says the disease could threaten Michigan's billion dollar hunting industry if it infects the million wild deer in the Lower Peninsula.
However, the cost to the Michigan economy from the narrow-minded, knee-jerk ban based on finding one single sick deer in a private farm is undoubtedly one of the most foolish examples of bureaucratic hysteria, abuse of power and incompetence in Michigan history.
The main thing that threatens the billion dollar deer hunting industry right now is a single bureaucrat making a costly blunder based on a single deer.##
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jc3540 Says:
On September 22, 2008
at 11:25 AM
If this can happen with one deer in question why does the US government allow prescription drugs that have been the reason for many deaths of humans to go on being sold with no action against the drug companies. Are deer more important than human lives
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