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Where CWD originated in
northern Missouri... in deer pens where does were purchased from various states
Many
of the newspapers that use my column receive and use letters from the Missouri
Department of Conservation concerning what I write. That is good, we should
hear both sides. But before you read this column, you should know that many
newspapers, the big ones in large cities, would never print this column, even
as a letter to the editor. Recently many newspapers printed a letter from
someone calling himself the ‘executive’ director of the Conservation Federation
of Missouri, defending their ‘Share Your Harvest’ program which distributes
deer meat to the poor.
Such
venison comes, as a rule, from those trophy hunters who just want to shoot a
buck with a nice set of antlers and not have to mess with the meat. While I do not approve of such
‘hunting’, I have always been supportive of that program, providing venison to
those who need it. That is UNTIL the Chronic Wasting Disease came along. Let me tell you for the last time why I
think it should come to a screeching halt. Then you can decide if you wish to eat
donated deer meat. There IS another side to hear.
Recently
at the Wal-Mart sporting goods counter, a lady selling deer tags was telling
folks that the MDC has determined that Chronic Wasting Disease will not affect
humans. That is pure nonsense! The MDC has propagated that kind of thinking not
by lying about it so much as just neglecting to tell the whole truth. Almost no one knows much about the deer
disease… even doctors. It is caused by rogue proteins known as ‘prions’ which
is also the exact thing that causes a disease in humans known as
Jakob-Kruetzfeldt. In England when
that disease began to show up in cattle, hundreds and perhaps thousands died
from it. They got it from eating that diseased beef and getting those prions
inside their body.
A good number of deer hunters in
Missouri have also died from prions in their system, and it has been hidden. Those
prions attack and destroy the brain.
Death can take several weeks or months, but believe me, no media, nor
the MDC has ever talked with relatives of those who died from the disease. I
have!! My daughter, who is a
doctor, told me she saw a man who died from Jakob-Kruetzfeld disease in medical
school in Columbia, Missouri.
Those
who are sure their loved ones died from eating prion-affected venison deserve
to be heard and in my next issue of the Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor magazine I will
see to it many of them tell their story. One lady telling me that her husband
died from the disease attracted immediate attention from the Center for Disease
Control in Atlanta. They had his body escorted from a St. Louis hospital by the
highway patrol to the crematory because they feared someone might handle it if
the ambulance was involved in an accident. The body of anyone known to have
died from the ingestion of prions is not sent to a funeral home, but cremated
as soon as possible.
Folks
like the ‘executive’ director of the Conservation Federation will tell you that
since this awful disease in humans can be derived by eating elk, beef, goat or
sheep, no one can be sure that the disease which has killed many humans in
Missouri, was caused by eating deer meat. And so they allow untested venison
handed over to various meat processors to be given to the poor, with no warning
whatsoever. What if the deer was shot in the brain, the spleen, the spinal
column, the bladder? What if a
processing company grinds up meat for hamburger, including the lymph nodes,
which are never removed? Does that puzzle you? Read this paragraph sent out this year by the Center For Disease
Control in Atlanta Georgia on November 3, 2017…
“Hunters should avoid eating meat
from deer and elk that look sick or test positive for CWD. They should wear
gloves when field-dressing carcasses, bone-out the
meat from the animal, and minimize handling of brain
and spinal cord tissues. As a precaution, hunters
should avoid eating deer and elk tissues known to
harbor the CWD agent (e.g., brain, spinal cord, eyes,
spleen, tonsils, lymph nodes) from areas where CWD
has been identified.”
The
MDC and the Conservation Federation will not tell you this, and the deer meat
they send you from various meat processors as part of the ‘share your harvest’
program has NOT BEEN TESTED!
I
don’t want to tell readers what to do. You come up with your own conclusions. The chances may be that 100,000 people
could eat that venison and no more than one or two or three will ingest those
horrible prions. The risk may be more minimal than the chance of being struck
by lightning. But no one knows. I
just want to see everyone know that the risk is there, and it is important to
know why the Conservation Federation and the MDC want to keep hunters
uninformed. Both could lose
millions of dollars if there were huge numbers of deer tags sold. Trophy
hunters from out of state pay a tremendous amount to shoot a deer in Missouri
with big antlers, and turn the meat over to be eaten by the poor. But is there anyone in the state so
poor they ought to be handed a risk they have no knowledge of whatsoever?
And
for that, the powers that be who decide that untested, possibly diseased deer
should be given away, enable trophy hunters to be legal, as ‘wanton waste’ of
wildlife is a criminal offense. Anyone receiving donated venison should also
know that in deer pen operations where domestically raised buck deer are killed
by trophy hunters, the deer is injected a day before he is killed with
chemicals which have warnings on the box that the chemical should not be given
to animals which are to be eaten. That meat is indeed given away, because of
that ‘share your harvest’ program. Maybe the warning on the box of that chemical
is just so much baloney. But the people of the state who receive it, need to
know what they are eating.
So
now you have information that you will not hear anywhere else… the news media?
Not on your life. Remember that I wrote for the Springfield News Leader when
the MDC ‘made a deal’ with the company to provide free information in return
for not using any of my columns that criticized them, or any other news about
them in the paper that they did not approve of. Have you ever seen any effort
by the news media, including T.V. stations in your area, that criticized the
MDC or the Conservation Federation in any way?
Everything
you have read here is the truth, and I will go anywhere, anytime to discuss
this. I have challenged the MDC to bring their whole staff to some auditorium
or large meeting hall to debate this. I will come alone but for the relatives
of those who died from the disease. Many of them have something to say that
should be heard.
Next
column, I have a good mountain lion story for you, and information about a call
I received from the State Auditor’s office.
My new email address is lightninridge47@gmail.com. You can write to me at Box 22, Bolivar,
Mo. 65613. You may call my office
and talk with me at
417-777-5227.
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