Deer Farming

[tailfeather]

#5145

Saw this linked on another site. I assume most are informed about the deer farming “industry” and related ethcial and disease issues, but if not, take a quick gander. The Deer Farmers Assoc. spokesman will make your stomach turn. Excerpts below (italics mine):

“Schafer argues they (farmed deer) are livestock and thus should not be regulated by state wildlife agencies, even if they are shot under the guise of hunting.”

“Our members (deer farmers) provide a service for hunters who may not have the time necessary to have a successful hunt or access to quality land. These ranches offer a quality hunt, which is what everyone wants, isn’t it?”

http://www.petersenshunting.com/deer/deer-farms-huntings-ticking-time-bomb/

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#37556

tailfeather wrote:

“Our members (deer farmers) provide a service for hunters who may not have the time necessary to have a successful hunt or access to quality land.

Then they should make the damn time, if that’s what they really want to do. Hunting was never intended to be a quick and easy experience. It’s not mini-golf.

tailfeather wrote: These ranches offer a quality hunt, which is what everyone wants, isn’t it?”

That’s kind of like saying that McDonalds makes a “quality hamburger.” 🙄

There could be a simple line in the sand drawn here, if legislators had any backbone – If deer farmers want their herd classified as “livestock,” then they can’t charge for them to be “hunted.” Pure and simple. As long as they are charging for hunts, they aren’t livestock, and fish & game has jurisdiction.

[Ralph]

#37587

There’s so many people out there that just want to shoot, not hunt and they use the premise of not having time to hunt.

Hell, they didn’t want to hunt anyway, they just gotta fill the macho slot in their brain by making a kill.

I’m certainly glad that there’s places to donate the meat because most of those shooters don’t give a damn about the meat either.

There’s “elk farms” (cooler to call them “elk ranches” cause they’re out west) scattered all over the west too but you don’t hear much about them.

$$$ oriented it all is, the “hunt” is just something to call it. 👿

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#37611

Ralph,

There are a few elk farms near me, one just on the other side of town. I refuse to touch their product, even though it’s common in restaurants around here. I think a lot of tourists see “elk” on the menu, and don’t ever realize what the reality is of where that meat actually came from.

One of the most tragic sounds I hear in the fall are the bulls on that farm bugling, while their wild brethren are doing the same thing in their natural range, just a few miles away. In fact, they are so close in proximity, that at times I bet they’re actually bugling at each other.

[Anonymous]

#37615

I think I’ll let Smithhammer and David Peterson (when he chimes in) speak for me on this one. I’m likely to say what I really think and end up getting banned.

[tailfeather]

#37636

Smithhammer wrote:

One of the most tragic sounds I hear in the fall are the bulls on that farm bugling, while their wild brethren are doing the same thing in their natural range, just a few miles away. In fact, they are so close in proximity, that at times I bet they’re actually bugling at each other.

Tragic, indeed.

It would suit me fine if they were banned outright, whether for hunting or breeding. The financial gains enjoyed by a few individuals is simply not worth the risk to native, free ranging wildlife. Not to mention that the whole super-frankendeer industry is just a grotesque manipulation of a wild critter already shaped by eons of evolution. All to feed some insane fetish for large antlers. As if large antlers are the sole indicator of superior genetics….

[Stephen Graf]

#37652

It’s a done deal in NC.

Our wonderful Legislature took deer management away from the wildlife commission and gave it to the agricultural commission with a single line in the budget.

I don’t see how that’s legal, but they did it. No notification, no comments, no debate in the legislature. It was paid for by Food Lion and the Deer “farmers”. Not sure what the CEO of Food Lion has planned, but I am sure it ain’t good…

[Ralph]

#37696

I just did a little research on “deer scents”. It’s hard to imagine all the deer it takes (I didn’t find that number)to gather 660,000 gallons of doe pee (buck too) every year.

That’s a lot of deer living their life out in little stalls, the article said several does to a stall because they’re more sociable, bucks get their own “cell” , I mean stall.

That’s something I hadn’t really thought about until we began talking deer farms.

So we have brood-stock, antler sales, urine supply, elk meat (I’ve personally never seen whitetail buck steaks in any restaurant,possible I guess)and trophy shooting. What’d I miss?

I know, I’m in Texas and it’s here too big time and I don’t want to make a state thing out of this cause it’s everywhere.

Sad to say but there are places in Texas where you can buy an elk to shoot. What it boils down to anyway.

[Anonymous]

#38756

R2 wrote: I just did a little research on “deer scents”. It’s hard to imagine all the deer it takes (I didn’t find that number)to gather 660,000 gallons of doe pee (buck too) every year.

That’s a lot of deer living their life out in little stalls, the article said several does to a stall because they’re more sociable, bucks get their own “cell” , I mean stall.

That’s something I hadn’t really thought about until we began talking deer farms.

So we have brood-stock, antler sales, urine supply, elk meat (I’ve personally never seen whitetail buck steaks in any restaurant,possible I guess)and trophy shooting. What’d I miss?

I know, I’m in Texas and it’s here too big time and I don’t want to make a state thing out of this cause it’s everywhere.

Sad to say but there are places in Texas where you can buy an elk to shoot. What it boils down to anyway.

Consider, too, that all that doe pee is general from does in estrous. Ponder what it takes to keep a doe in heat for damned near her entire life.

[wojo14]

#43007

This is all just wrong!

I can not believe this happens, and people are too dumb to realize how unnatural it is!

[David Fudala]

#43066

I know I’m throwing gas on a bon-fire here but on a related topic I caught a clip of an “outdoor” show the other day. the segment I saw almost made me sick to my stomach. they were pushing a new product that in essence is a lightweight and portable electric fence system for food plots. Now I don’t want to start a rukus here about food plots. if you use them, fine. if you don’t fine. I won’t even disclose my personal feelings about them here. What really stung me was how these people were using this fencing system to train the whitetails using their plots. What’s next? Cattle runs funneling deer past their stands??? If you are using artificially introduced foods and barriers to regulate the movements of the animals to and from those foods, are they considered a “wild animal” anymore? And when they shoot a “book” sized animal that they basically “engineered”, does that animal truly deserve a place of recognition? I can’t keep up with all this anymore!?!?

[wojo14]

#43354

[quote=dfudala]I know I’m throwing gas on a bon-fire here but on a related topic I caught a clip of an “outdoor” show the other day. the segment I saw almost made me sick to my stomach. they were pushing a new product that in essence is a lightweight and portable electric fence system for food plots.

WOW!

Unbelievable!

[David Petersen]

#44037

The comments and emotions expressed by you gentlemen here offer a bright hint of hope that there still remains some minority hope for sanity in this self-terminating human-made world. We could do worse than “Embrace your outrage” as a guiding philosophy.

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#44082

David Petersen wrote: We could do worse than “Embrace your outrage” as a guiding philosophy.

Well yeah….but don’t let it eat you up, either. As one of your co-conspirators once said,

“Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast….a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here…”

😉

[Fallguy]

#44117

There is no end to what corporate America will do to turn a buck. Unfortunately the individuals that will end up buying these shortcuts are the very same that the Game and Fish Departments are chasing with their programs to recruit New Hunters. They have no traditions so they read the so called hunting magazines and watch the videos. Then they proceed to buy every shortcut in the book. The day is coming when someone will put together a computer program that takes all the information from the multiple game cameras GPS, date, time facial recognition put together with stand locations. It will then tell you the stand with the best odds of taking Buck #27 on Saturday morning. And if the politicians in your state are like mine they will not restrict it because it would limit commerce.

[jmsmithy]

#44130

Steve Graf wrote: It’s a done deal in NC.

Our wonderful Legislature took deer management away from the wildlife commission and gave it to the agricultural commission with a single line in the budget.

I don’t see how that’s legal, but they did it. No notification, no comments, no debate in the legislature. It was paid for by Food Lion and the Deer “farmers”. Not sure what the CEO of Food Lion has planned, but I am sure it ain’t good…

My God Steve. That’s horrendous. And one of my biggest fears living here in Jersey and upstate NY. The good news here in Jersey (so far) is our Gov Christie seems to be supportive of hunters and has repeatedly sided w/ our DEC. I sit on NJ State Council for TU and he’s been real helpful there too…NY on the other hand …holy moly. Cuomo is so anti outdoorsman, second amendment etc it’s repulsive. And now he’s pitching this “NY open for Hunting and Fishing” program in an attempt to get upstate folks to forget he railroaded the most draconian gun laws in the country through under the guise of safety after that horror in CT. The funny thing is his law would’ve done NOTHING to stop that sicko at the school…and, oh yeah, he made every member of law enforcement in the state that didn’t carry a revolver a felon…really well thought out legislation 🙄

Steve it’s a shame what your Legislature did…hopefully you can get folks in that gets it and reverses that sham…

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#45928

Wrong thread…. 🙄

[Stephen Graf]

#46940

Jmsmithy wrote:

Steve it’s a shame what your Legislature did…hopefully you can get folks in that gets it and reverses that sham…

Just got word yesterday that the governor refused to sign the budget with that language in it. Looks like the deer are safe here for another year… Every now and then, something good happens 😀

[Author]

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