Deer Farms
Deer farms have been around since 5,000 B.C. and came to America over 100 years ago. The purpose of these farms are for both slaughter and recreational hunting. Deer are enclosed in a fenced in area and are forced to spend their life there. Many of the deer that call a deer farm their home are suffering from chronic wasting disease. This is a disease that feeds on the flesh of the brain, spinal cord, eyes, spleen, tonsils, and lymph nodes of the deer. This disease is transmittable through mating and is highly dangerous because it can spread to all of the deer in the area. This means that no deer is safe when fenced into the deer farm while another deer has CWD. Wisconsin started testing deer for CWD on deer farms in 1999, and found the first positive case in 2002. As of 2015 there were 421 registered deer farms in Wisconsin, and every one of them are susceptible to this disease. Currently the deer farms are regulated by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP). Non white-tailed deer farms, like Elk farms, aren’t regulated by the DNR in Wisconsin. In June 2015 a doe from a Wisconsin deer farm was diagnosed with CWD. Soon after this discovery, in September the same deer farm experienced 12 deer escaping it’s fences. This portrays how Wisconsin is failing to protect their deer which are left in deer farms. Only 9 of the deer were captured, the rest are still out in the wild and could be passing this disease on to other deer. When situations like this arise, we turn to those of power. The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection regulate deer farms and require specific licenses for running the farms. Without a license, deer farmers will not be able to keep their farm or start one for that matter. Things like veterinary inspections, and animal import limitations must be agreed to and followed in order to achieve this license. All of these regulations that come with this license work towards keeping deer farms under control and to prevent the spread of disease. The DNR can establish standards and licenses for captive wildlife such as pen regulations and transportation standards. They also require quarterly and annual reports that account for numbers of escaped, dead, born, and so on. The fencing certificate is only needed for white-tailed deer farms, and is not required for other deer farms. Non white-tailed deer farms aren’t regulated by the DNR. Without this regulation and surveillance, issues can arise. A strong correlation between the rise in the deer farming industry and the spread of chronic wasting disease. The transportation of infected deer across state lines may be deemed as irresponsible as it continues to further the fatal CWD amongst both captive and wild deer. The prevalence of CWD has increased in percentage in Wisconsin since 2007. Most states have little oversight in how the deer are killed in these fenced-in hunting preserves where an individual can pay a good amount of money for a better trophy and an easier ‘hunt’ of the deer that were raised in captivity. It is questionable if 'canned hunting' is even a sport as it is an unfair game. There is also growing concern for diseases that could be transferrable to humans through consumption of the potentially affected venison. |
|