The state of Michigan discovered one domestically raised whitetail deer infected with chronic wasting disease and one of the things the Department of Natural Resources did in knee-jerk fashion was to ban baiting by hunters in what they believed to be an effort to stop the spread of the disease. This action might be likened best to giving everyone Rain-X for their car windshields in hope that it will stop the rain from coming down.
Before you go getting mad at me, I need to be as forthcoming as I can in order that you better understand where I’m coming from. I don’t bait. I have never baited other than stuffing cheese or peanut butter into a mouse trap. Would I ever use bait in order to harvest a game animal? Perhaps and let me explain why.
I personally love to hunt and my choice of hunting techniques vary little from taking up a stand – not in a tree or elevated – in a strategic location or still hunting, or stalking as it is sometimes called. I find this the most challenging and thus the most rewarding. It’s also what I grew up learning to do because in the state of Maine baiting of whitetail deer is illegal and to my knowledge always has been. But why?
We can argue several reasons but I believe the biggest reason is because of its use as a management tool. Maine isn’t overrun with deer, with the exception of a few areas in the southern part of the state. Allowing baiting of deer would spike the success rate while at the same time reduce the effort for that success. Obviously, adjustments to the season can be done to compensate for this but one thing that jumps out at me that would be a negative is it would shorten the season and thus cram more hunters into the woods over a shorter period of time. Not good!
I am not opposed to the use of baiting for deer or any other animal when used as a necessary management tool. Some argue ethics but let’s leave that up to the individual staying within the laws written.
Nobody wants chronic wasting disease in their state or in this country for that matter but it is here and there are a lot of sensible things that can be done to help stop the spread of the disease. Banning baiting would have little if any affect on the spread, even though there are those who will vehemently disagree with me. And that’s fine.
Let’s look closer at what we know about the disease. Very little really. Theories abound with few ever proven. Because this discussion is about the spread of the disease, let’s focus on what we know about that. Before I do, let me first explain something about the efforts of scientists to study this disease and find a cure.
Here’s where I will anger a lot of people but the truth is much of the financial method we use for the study of disease is fatally flawed. We reward laboratories with gobs of money through grants with few strings attached, even before any effort is expended. In short there is little incentive to find a cure. Why send the cash cow away? Why not reward scientists after they find a cure?
One would think the desire for grant money for research would create competition, which some of us see as a good thing. In fact is does quite the opposite in that it creates closed fraternities all eager to share a piece of the pie, so to speak, in exchange for not rocking the boat. What you end up with at times are those scientists working on alternative theories but get shut out of the process because they are bucking the system. Haven’t we all heard of this tactic before?
The result of all this is a prolonged effort to find a cure or even to better understand the real cause of chronic wasting disease and how it is spread.
Science isn’t even sure if CWD exists naturally. They have no point of origin and therefore only certain assumptions have been made. Some scientific journals label the disease as occurring naturally. What happens to the animal once it has contracted is still far from understood. To be frightfully honest, nobody really understands how the disease is spread and that’s what I’m here to discuss.
The theory in Michigan in banning baiting is that it is believed that this will stop the congregating of deer which will reduce the likelihood of the spread of the disease. This theory is based on the spread of the disease through bodily fluids. In this case a nose to nose contact or saliva from an infected deer left behind in the bait pile being eaten by or contacted by a subsequent deer visiting the same bait pile at the same time or later on.
We don’t know that CWD can be spread in this fashion. We have discovered that once this disease gets into the soil, say in pens where deer have been corralled, it is virtually impossible to kill it. Using the theory of its natural occurrence, some believe it can be carried through crops harvested from infected areas – i.e. hay, corn, etc., yet little has been done in that regard.
Only now are scientists discovering that it is probably ingestion of contaminated food that causes the spread and contraction. I know of one scientist who claims that it is nearly impossible that the disease can be spread through “kissing” – a nose to nose touch by two animals or through external bodily fluids.
We can easily go to most any fish and game website and read the same talking points on chronic wasting disease, what it is, the symptoms of the disease, how it’s spread, etc.. But this is mostly the common theories most of which yet to be proven.
Does that mean we should disregard what they are saying? Of course not but on the other hand we shouldn’t disregard what others are saying simply because it is different. Where would science be today if we didn’t have those daring enough to step forward and challenge the mainstream?
I would suggest to those interested in furthering their education on chronic wasting disease, to visit StopCWD.org. While there, visit the “Library” and read what Rich Forrest has discovered about the disease and it’s spread.
Banning baiting in Michigan will have virtually no affect on stopping the spread of the disease in the wild. What it will do is create an economic nightmare for those in the bait selling business. We have yet to discover how this ban will affect the effort of hunters, which in turn would have an affect on the harvest projections by the DNR.
At the conclusion of this season, if nothing changes, how will this ban affect license sales for next year? We know funding for wildlife management comes from the sale of licenses. Without it, wildlife will suffer.
The state should reexamine their testing procedures for domestic cervid ranches to make sure things are up to date. They should also continue their testing efforts at tagging stations throughout the state. It puzzles my mind why all states don’t do this. Maine has never had CWD and the closest known existence of CWD is on a domestic ranch in New York, yet they have been testing harvested deer for several years.
I believe the bait banning is unnecessary and the fallout will far outweigh any real benefits of banning.
Tom Remington
