A new decision issued Monday by the Minnesota Court of Appeals in general supports the rule-making authority of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources when it comes to protecting the state's wild deer herd from Chronic Wasting Disease found in captive deer herds.
The DNR and the Minnesota Board of Animal Health share Concurrent Authority Regulating Farmed White-tailed Deer.
Back in September 2021, we posted Bad news about chronic wasting disease at WI deer farm: straw meets camel's back?.
As a consequence, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources annouced in a press release, DNR temporarily bans farmed deer movement into and within Minnesota to protect state’s wild white-tailed deer.
On December 6, the agency rescinded the temporary ban of deer movement, issuing a press release on December 2, DNR to rescind rule temporarily banning farmed deer movement into and within Minnesota.
In October, the new desision notes, Minnesota Deer Farmers Association, "a nonprofit corporation whose members own and operate deer farms in Minnesota, filed a declaratory-judgment petition with this court, challenging the validity of the rule."
That didn't go exactly as the MDFA wanted, but we suspect that MDFA allies, like Torrey Westrom, R-Elbow Lake/Alexandria, will attempt to both rescind the DNR's rule-making authority and the concurrent authority. Remember, Westrom put off hearing a bill drought relief for conventional farmers in February to instead consider the laments of deer farmers. And there's that family affair with deer farmers on the part of Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller.
The DNR had the statutory authority under section 97A.045 and section 84.027,
subdivision 13, to adopt an expedited emergency rule temporarily prohibiting the
movement of farmed white-tailed deer in Minnesota to prevent the spread of disease in
wild deer. MDFA’s remaining arguments regarding the rule’s validity are moot.
Here's the decision:
STATE OF MINNESOTA IN COURT OF APPEALS A21-138 uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd
We hope deer hunters and other voters educate themselves about candidates' positions on fighting Chronic Wasting Disease and captive deer farmers.
Related posts:
- MN Board of Animal Health: CWD confirmed in quarantined Winona County captive deer herd
- Update: More on Miller family deer farm interests
- Senate DFL Leader Franzen raises conflict-of-interest concerns in Republican leader's role overturning bipartisan vote to protect wild deer
Images: Todd Miller (top); Facebook page posts about depopulating his deer herd. We reported in Update: More on Miller family deer farm interests that Todd Miller, brother of the MN Senate Minority Leader, was the 2021-2022 president of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association. His leadership in the Minnesota Deer Farmers Association isn't limited to 2021-2022. ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer page of data for the Minnesota Deer Farmers Association included IRS filings from 2009 through 2019; for 2013 forward, Propublica list the names of officers on the filings.
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