Worried About Mad Deer Disease? Feed it to the Poor!

Wisconsin has a "deer management" problem. Chronic wasting disease, called CWD but dubbed mad deer disease, has been found in its wild herd of 1.6 million deer. Sales of hunting licenses, and thus state revenue from sales, are down 22% as the big fall hunt approaches. The state's hunting industry is suffering financially and running radio ads and posting billboards that ridicule hunter health concerns as "media hysteria." However, the World Health Organization says that no part of an infected deer should be eaten. A healthy-appearing deer can be infected and no reliable test is available, so what's a hunter to do? To get hunters buying licenses and killing deer, the state is arranging for hunters to donate deer to feed the state's poor and hungry. The state is also stepping up a PR plan that includes public meetings to reassure hunters. To follow the now daily developments visit
MadDeer.Org, a website begun by a disgruntled Wisconsin hunter.