CWD Headed To Courts

Home > CWD Headed To Courts

According to the Luddington Daily News’ website, the CWD baiting ban is now heading to the courts. It seems that there is a group that is going to try to persuade a judge to overturn the DNR’s ruling on the baiting ban in Michigan’s lower peninsula. In the report it states that a petition was filed on Tuesday of this week in Lansing’s Circuit Court. The lawyers working this case are Edward J. McNeelyIII and Matthew Malleis both of Grand Rapids. Judge Joyce Draganchuck is supposed to preside over the case. Gerald Malburg of Oceana County in Michigan is one of the petitioners in this case. He is a wildlife rehabilitator, a store owner and a hunter as well.

Malburg’s complaint is that the carrots and beats he planted in the spring for deer feed sales is going to go to waste and cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars if they are not moved to market. The DNR’s order also keeps any wildlife rehabilitator from being able to take in and help deer. Another farmer from Roscommon County has already lost between $10,000 and $15,000 due to the baiting ban. Another farmer in Oakland County has estimated that he has lost $20,000 also.

Robert Turner of Eaton County claims that the second home he owns on Beaver Island should be exempt from the baiting ban because the island is 20 miles off shore and there is no way a deer could swim that far to the island to pass along the disease.

Another factor in this equation is that the farmers not only can’t sell their crops, but they must also pay to have them disposed of properly. The issue is that if they don’t get rid of the crops in the fields by harvesting them, they might be ticketed for baiting deer according to Lawyer McNeely if they dump them on the so called back 40!

The last issue with this petition is that they claim that the DNR didn’t give the public a forum to discuss the ban due to traditional procedural methods and practices when a state order is changed according to Michigan law.

Somehow I had a strange feeling that with all of the uproar on this issue, it was somehow going to end up in a court room. This is a sad day in our hunting history, when we have to fight in court over baiting. Like I have said many times here and elsewhere, as long as there is emotion driving this situation it will not go away anytime soon. I wish that the facts were the driving force of this discussion,

If we have to hunt without bait so be it. I was in Colorado last week hunting mule deer. Out there you cannot use bait of any kind what so ever. Without using bait, I still saw a lot of deer while in the field. You will still see deer without bait, will it be harder? Yes! But it will make you a better hunter.

I think we have become so accustomed to using bait due to our lifestyles of today’s world. We have to hurry to work, hurry to pick up the kids, hurry hear and hurry there. We are so rushed that we don’t or won’t take time to properly scout in the preseason, so we have to rely on baiting to bring deer to where we set our stands. A busy lifestyle is no excuse for not doing your preseason scouting. Lets keep this thing out of the courts and let it run its course.

deerhtn

One Muley in the freezer…no carrots added. When I take my girls out this season, we’ll be sitting in an area that I have hunted for years, I know what to expect and I know I don’t need bait. Would bait be nice…? Yup, but I don’t need it. Besides, if I make a bad shot and hit a carrot the Vegan society might try to get me arrested.
http://www.simplyoutdoors.net Arthur

It definitely is a sad day for Michigan hunter’s. I was hoping that it wouldn’t go this far, but for some reason I knew that it probably would.

Geesh. This is amazing. Doesn’t anyone care about the deer herd? And these are the same people, who if the DNR did nothing and then the deer herd was really infected with CWD, who would be complaining and pointing fingers and saying they didn’t do enough.

It is all based on emotion, and not fact. That is the biggest problem.
Tim

Now come on people. The CWD action plan that the DNR has implemented is not something that they just cooked up on the fly. They created it in 2002. Nobody complained then. They didn’t hide what that action plan was since anyone could read it if they wanted to. Now that the DNR is implementing their action plan and people are all up in arms. Give me a break. This issue with people whinning and crying about the baiting ban is really starting to get under my skin. Yes it is going to hurt people finacialy right now but look at the big picture. Deer hunting in this state could potentially be devasated and I for one don’t want to take that chance. I have to ask these people taking it to court do they want the game managed by sound sicentific facts or by politics and our court system, which is just all polictics also? Then ban is in place so lets deal with it and move on so that the DNR can get on with finding out exactly what the extent of CWD is in Michigan not wasting thier limited funds on some court case. Sorry if I am ranting but this really starting to irritate me.
Robert

Instead of dealing with the CWD problem the DNR has CO’s going around writing citations for persons that have not cleaned up fallen apples on the ground under apple trees. I mean come on DNR, your kidding right?

Stop Defending the DNR just because they are the DNR. It amazes me when people get irritated about the democratic process working. If you don’t like citizens challenging their own government…then move to IRAN or RUSSIA you might like the process better in one of those countries.
Tim

I keep hearing about all of these tickets that are being written by the CO’s but yet I have not see anything in the news about them. Do you personally know of someone who got ticketed for not picking up the apples that naturally fell off of their tree or is it just something that you heard second hand? Anyways the CO’s job isn’t to deal with the CWD problem, that’s the biologist do, but instead their job is to inforce the game laws on the books.

Yes in this instance I am defending the DNR but not just because they are the DNR but becuase I agree with what they are doing. They have done things in that past that I didn’t agree with and in those instances I didn’t support them in their decisions but I do with the CWD.

Whoever said that they had a problem with citizens challenging their government? Nobody here that I know of. I don’t have a problem with the democratic process working at all after isn’t the freedom of speach that we are excuting right here part of the democartic process?

Robert I would be willing to bet that if the DNR did nothing to stop or prevent CWD you would be the first one crying wolf when the deer hear was decimated by CWD wanting to know where the DNR was in trying to stop it. The whole point is that you don’t need bait to hunt deer. Sure you might have to do some scouting to figure out the deer movements and put alittle more effort into deer hunting but in the end it will make someone a better hunter.
Robert

Tim-

I don’t use bait..never have. The baiting ban will not affect my season in the least, but for the guys up in age…or handicapped…their season is going to be lousy!

And yes.. my neighbor was given a ticket for the apples…its a fact.
http://www.upnorthjournal.com MikeAdams

If the DNR is truly issuing tickets for fallen apples then I would challenge this in court due to an over zealous DNR officer. Just because one DNR CO decides to flex his muscles, we shouldn’t throw all of them in the same bag. Now with that said, did your neighbor move the fallen apples into a pile? If so, then he is guilty of baiting under the law. You may not move fallen or spilled grain or vegetables, when you do it is considered baiting. I personally think this is bull roar, but it is the law. I would challenge it in court. Now as far as the CO dealing with CWD that is the biologist job not the DNR’s. They just enforce the laws. I don’t know why people of age are at a disadvantage without bait. They have the same opportunities to hunt as the rest of us. If they are too old to get out and do a physical hunt, then they are also probably too old to carry bait into their stand. As for handicap hunters, they too have people and organizations that will assist them with their hunts. They may even have better spots to hunt than most of us. These organizations will usually put these guys and gals on a great spot to hunt to better their odds. Now granted, not all of them will be in this situation, but I would rather have deer to hunt in the future than to give in to a few people, so they might be able to take a deer a little easier this season. I tend to think of the long term effects, not for the immediate future. Truthfully I didn’t use bait in Colorado last week and I had a great experience, I saw a lot of deer with out it. To say that we are going to have a lousy season is irresponsible. We don’t know what the effects are going to be yet. Some people will see less deer and they will blame it on baiting and others will see a lot of deer and feel they don’t need it. There is no way to really tell how this will impact this season. So lets all do our part and get out and scout before season so that we will have some success. Remember a successful hunt is not always putting meat in your freezer. It is about the hunt and the experience not about what you bring home! But it does help to have some meat occassionally.
Robert

Apples were not in a pile…on the ground where god let them fall.
deerhtn

Robert,

Either the DNR officer is daft or something else is going on… There is no law that can be enforced from apples falling from trees unless they are pushed or stacked into a pile… Would your neighbor be willing to give us some information on the citation? the Citation number and code? Id be interested in finding out what the DNR thinks it is enforcing…

thanks
Rick

After reading Tims reply I just realized that the DNR are now psychic? They wrote this law in 2002 and the this infected deer was found 6 years later? wow. Or is this like the seat belt law; first to get that law past you could not get pulled over for not wearing a seat belt; now look, think Tim they started this in 2002 to ban it period. I don’t think it has anything to do with CWD, but a good reason to bring big brother in our homes and on our property. There is no scientific proof that feeding deer causes CWD. Back to the farmers and the apple trees have you ever been on a farm? During harvest time, great deals of corn, soy beans are spilled and not picked up, should we give them all tickets for not sweeping up what the combines miss? What will they do with the sugar beets and dirt that are dumped back in the field… take it to a land fill for rats? Not to mention all the people in Michigan losing there lively hood? Why didnt they implement this last Feb, before crops were planted, IF they knew in 2002?? With no scientific proof! For the people that don’t have property and hunt on state land; how many deer can really eat at the 2 gallon feed pile at one time? They need to enforce the feed law they have, it would work!

One more thing I want to point out… without proof what gives them the right to tell me I can not have a feeder for wildlife other than deer. This is not a communist country yet… think it over folks.
http://www.upnorthjournal.com MikeAdams

Rick: what Tim is talking about was the DNR action plan they constructed in 2002 in case there was a case or outbreak of CWD in Michigan. To make a ignorant statement that they are psyschic is stupid. This was a plan of action just like buildings have a fire escape plan in case there is a fire, not that they will know when one happens. Let’s keep the discussion on topic and quite trying to talk down to people. We are all here for the same reason, whether we all agree on how or why the DNR did what it did isn’t the point. The point is to discuss this like adults not kids and try to educate ourselves on the issue at hand.

CWD Headed To Courts

Related Posts

Mike Adams

Blogroll

Podcasts

Resources

Archives
Categories