MDC Slaughter!!

 

 

       The deer slaughter is over! It goes from mid-January to mid-March.  Last years extermination project killed more than thirty-seven thousand deer. That number may reach 50 thousand this year.  I don’t know how a “Conservation” department could be a part of such meaningless killing of a wild creature of any kind. Conservation is not what they are involved in now. The name should be changed.  The greater goal is more money. 

       The killing is being done in the name of chronic wasting research.   They say that ‘til now only one out of a hundred deer in the state have the deadly transmissible spongiform encephalopathy disease, which they refer to as chronic wasting disease, the brain destroying prion disease, which they falsely deny that humans can get.

       And there is also the belief inside the MDC that Missouri has too many deer anyway. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is a partner in the slaughter.  The MDC gets hundreds of thousands of dollars from USDA to carry out the extermination.  Maybe the new president’s DOGE will get wind of what’s going on and put a stop to it. If those thousands could be spent more wisely we could actually see some legitimate conservation projects in the state, like the preservation of rivers and the reconstruction of Schell Osage waterfowl area.

        In case you are unaware of where the money goes… think of ‘reimbursement’ for the expense of rifles, ammunition and the salary and expenses for perhaps hundreds of different shooters necessary to kill 40 to 50 thousand deer in two months.

        Piles of corn are set out where blinds are built to conceal the shooters, even though farmers feeding deer corn can be arrested for that.  Part of the killing is done at night using spotlights.  A certain amount of lying is necessary.  The public is told the deer meat is utilized in the “share the harvest” program.  That’s baloney.  A source inside the department I have talked with says, “You think those shooters will gut and butcher that many deer? No way! Bulldozers can dig big holes where hundreds can be buried or burned! Not all are even tested when a late night accounts for a whole pile of carcasses and crippled deer.”

       The shame of it all is that this past month hundreds of doe deer were killed with one or two fawns in them not long from being born. Thousands of big bucks are also among the count, bucks that will not be taken by hunters who spend their money on deer tags this coming fall.  The record low kill seen last fall will be even less next season. And once again, the MDC experts will come up with all kinds of reasons for it, warm weather, too many acorns etc. 

       What you won’t hear is “There are fewer bucks because of our winter slaughter, but that’s’ alright, we had too many deer anyway. The decline in hunter success is tough luck”.

       One landowner called me and told me he refused to let the MDC and USDA kill deer on his land but a neighbor let them in.  He has found dead deer and wounded deer on his place the last few weeks, ones that were shot on that neighboring land. Another call was from a lady who said they had bought 60 acres next to MDC’s 280-acre Cover Wildlife Area in southeast Missouri and for two months they had to live with the constant sound of rifle fire from late afternoon until way past sunset as shooting teams exterminated dozens and dozens of deer.  She fears that there will be few deer left on their own land. 

       The U.S. Dept of Agriculture contributes personnel to help kill the deer, and tons of money to the MDC for the slaughter. Like so many things, it all comes down to Government money, which likely means millions to the MDC over time.

       If you buy a deer tag this year, you might oughta be okay with less of a chance of seeing a buck.  But that’s okay. Remember the MDC slogan… ‘For Nature and you!’

 

 

Here is a news bulletin….Next fall and winter landowners will be offered 10 deer tags. In designated Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Core Areas, landowners of 5 contiguous acres or greater are eligible to receive up to 10 no-cost CWD Management Permits for use on their qualifying properties.

CWD Management Permits give eligible landowners the opportunity to take an active role in managing CWD in areas where the disease has been detected by removing POTENTIAL positive deer from the landscape. The permits also increase surveillance in CWD core areas by offering landowners, and/or hunters they designate, the opportunity to harvest additional deer on their property and get reimbursed for processing if they have their deer tested for CWD.