More ABOUT CWD

            When I wrote about CWD, the chronic wasting disease, a Missouri department of Conservation employee wrote to several of the newspapers claiming that much of the article was false.  They do that!  For many, many years, employees of that agency have lied when they wanted to, put out false information when they wanted to--- and they get away with it.  Except that one time when they were sued, and had to pay out 1 million dollars because a judge caught them in several lies.  Never heard about that did you?

            Telling hunters and the general public that CWD has never been known to affect humans is a LIE.  They can say that because someone who develops that awful disease may have eaten an elk, a sheep, a goat or a deer with the disease, or even a cow.  You cannot prove which of those animals passed it on to a human.  So that makes it so they can say that if you get it you cannot prove you got it from a deer.  In humans, it is not called Chronic Wasting Disease of course, even thought it is the same disease, caused by the same ‘prions’.  In my last article, I spelled it ‘pryons’ which gave the writer the opportunity to say I didn’t know what I was talking about.

           I think it is safe to say that no matter what they say about the disease, the MDC and some other game and fish agencies in other states, will never admit that a sick deer is a danger to any human, because the minute they do, they will likely lose a few million dollars in a big time drop in deer tag sales.

           It should be that you could take the deer you kill to a check station and have it checked for the disease.  On the opening week of deer season in twenty-five counties, you are required to do that, and could be issued a citation if you don’t.  But if your deer checks positive for CWD, I don’t believe you will be notified for quite some time, if at all.  And a hunter who has gutted and skinned and butchered a deer that has the disease, has already put himself at risk.

            A lady from Perryville, Missouri was the latest reader to tell me of a death from Jakob-Kruetzfeldt disease.  Her sister died in 2014, and she gave me many details which I will pass on in my next issue of the Lightnin’ Ridge outdoor magazine.  Her sister’s husband was a deer hunter. 

           I don’t know how many deaths have occurred in Missouri over the last 15 years from this awful disease.  But every one who has called to tell me about losing a loved one from it, talks about the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta Georgia stepping in to block any contact with the deceased person, and keeping the bodies from being taken to a funeral home.  In all cases, the deceased person was cremated. 

           My daughter the doctor, who will tell me little about this disease, saw her first case of it about fifteen years ago in Columbia Missouri, so it has been around awhile. I saw the first diseased deer brought into a north Missouri Amish deer pen operation from Ohio, about 20 years ago.  The first outbreak of CWD occurred in that county years later, very close to that Amish deer ranch.

            I can’t tell you any more about the threat of eating a sick deer than I already have, except that a perfectly healthy acting buck chasing does in November can have the disease, and some think that the disease can infect humans for years without showing up until the awful few weeks that a person who has it has to endure. Any “share your deer harvest” programs should be stopped immediately and no one should eat deer meat given to them.  Efforts are being made to stop the sale of deer urine as an attractant because prions have been found in deer urine.

             As to whether I am telling the truth when I write about the Missouri Department of Conservation, many times I have offered to meet with any number of them to discuss in public, before all who want to attend,  talking over the things they think I have written which are not on track.  Just me, willing to stand up and defend what I write before any kind of crowd, any where, against all their claims against me.  That debate challenge has never been accepted, but I still offer it-- any where they want to do it, any time against any number of their representatives and experts.  Trouble is, at such a debate, many things would be brought out that they do not want known.

            If you believe the MDC is an honest agency, heed the words of Rick Vance, the son of a Baptist minister and an MDC conservation agent who resigned years ago because as he said,  “I was often told to lie and I just wasn’t going to.”