Earlier today, Bluestem posted After joint House-Senate hearing on CWD, House Environment committee to hear Becker-Finn bill.
The hearing didn't disappoint.
Northland Outdoors reporter for the Forum News John Myers writes in Minnesota bill would ban new deer farms, require live chronic wasting disease testing of all farmed deer:
Minnesota would ban any new deer farms in the state and require all captive deer to be tested for chronic wasting disease by new tests available for live animals under a bill that passed a state House committee Wednesday.
The bill, HF 1202, also would shift oversight of captive deer farms, including elk and other cervidae, from the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, which usually oversees farm animals, to the Department of Natural Resources, which oversees wild animals.
The bill, the most sweeping anti-CWD measure in the state so far, passed the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee by a voice vote and now moves on to the House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee. A similar measure, SF 1526, has been introduced in the Senate.
The hearing came a day after several wildlife biologists, scientists, tribal officials and state wildlife officials testified in a joint hearing at the Capitol that CWD was an ongoing threat to the state’s wild deer population and that farmed deer, which are often moved between farms and between states to be sold as trophies, are a big reason that CWD is spreading across the state’s wild deer herd.
CWD has been confirmed on several deer farms across the state, often near areas where the disease has been found in wild deer. Farmed deer are often moved long distances as they are sold for trophy hunting on game farms.
“There’s a half-a-million deer hunters in this state. … And I’m one of them,” said Jamie Becker-Finn, DFL-Roseville, chief author of the bill. “Deer hunting is integral to who we are … the legislative intent here is that we protect our wild deer herd.”
The bill also requires double, 10-foot-high fencing for any whitetail deer farms, require ear tags in any captive whitetails and allow hunters to shoot escaped captive deer without penalty.
St. Louis County Board Chairman Patrick Boyle, of Duluth, testified on behalf of the bill Wednesday, noting St. Louis County imposed its own moratorium on any new deer farms in 2022 — the first county in the state to do so.
“The time is now to eradicate this (disease) and take care of it,” Boyle said.
But Tim Spreck, lobbyist for the Minnesota Deer Farmers Association, said most of the measures were punitive against deer farmers, would cost deer farm owners too much money and would do little to curb the spread of CWD.
Spreck said the moratorium on any new deer farms is in essence a death blow to deer farming in the state. . . .
Read the rest at the Duluth News Tribune--or other Forum News Service papers across the state.
Here's the video of the hearing from the MNHouse Info YouTube channel:
Yesterday's overview hearing of CWD in Minnesota
Myers mentioned that "wildlife biologists, scientists, tribal officials and state wildlife officials testified in a joint hearing at the Capitol. Here's the House Information Services of that earlier hearing:
Related posts
- Update: wild CWD detection in Beltrami County possibly connected to deer farm dump site
- DNR: Chronic wasting disease suspected in a wild deer in Bemidji area for the first time
- MN Chronic Wasting Disease dilemma: should new deer farms be blocked? The old bought out?
- Chronic Wasting Disease: St. Louis County permanently bans new or expanded cervid farms
- Todd Miller's deer farm was depopulated Tuesday,
- On Facebook, operator of CWD doomed Winona County deer farm wears Miller Scrap hat
- 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
Photo: Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn on a deer hunt near Preston. Courtesy photo, via Max Nesterak's August 13, 2021 MNReformer podcast, The wild politics of the zombie deer disease.
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