Posted on 02/27/2013 5:41:18 AM PST by Timber Rattler
The Dept. of Health and Hospitals ordered the staff at the Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission to throw 1,600 pounds of donated venison in garbage bins – and then ordered then to douse the meat with Clorox – so other animals would not eat the meat.
“Deer meat is not permitted to be served in a shelter, restaurant or any other public eating establishment in Louisiana,” said a Health Dept. official in an email to Fox News. “While we applaud the good intentions of the hunters who donated this meat, we must protect the people who eat at the Rescue Mission, and we cannot allow a potentially serious health threat to endanger the public.”
That statement set off a firestorm among hunters and lawmakers who called it outrageous and insulting.
(Excerpt) Read more at radio.foxnews.com ...
In our area, the highway patrol officers have a list of people to call if there’s fresh road kill. I would think Louisiana would know better. I’m guessing that a huge black market in deer meat will now grow.
In South Central Pennsylvania last fall, there was an outbreak of wasting disease in the local herds, and I have to admit that the Fish & Wildlife rangers did a fantastic job of communicating and working with local hunters and processors to deal with it.
Could be the problem here is an inarticulate inconsequential in the Board of Health hierarchy who imagines hunters and rescue mission people can't understand.
Remember, all these BoH folks are trained professionals, and hunters are just hillbillies (even though there are no hills down there, and most of them rarely ever show up on Gator Man).(/s)
If anyone is interested in the comments:
State deer herd hit with hemorrhagic disease (LA):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2991549/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2991392/posts
Louisiana Forces Homeless Shelter To Destroy $8,000 Worth Of Deer Meat ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2991278/posts
Health Dept.: Homeless Can’t Eat Deer Meat ^
The “Health Dept.” is just another gestapo agency of bureaucrats, exercising authority they don’t have.
They will use the excuse of “protecting from roadkill” to pretend there’s a reason for the ban.
THEN, they decide they need to protect animals from scavenging!!
REALLY?!?!
<“It’s not ever been shown to be contagious to humans,” LaCour said.>
It reminds me of the Robin Hood movies. You can’t eat the king’s deer.
But hunters shouldn’t be overly concerned that they will serve their family dangerous meat.
“It’s not ever been shown to be contagious to humans,” LaCour said.
Of course, a bit of common sense is in order, he said.
“If a deer looks healthy and acts healthy, then it’s fine,” LaCour said. “If a deer is sick, if it’s got multiple ulcers or lesions, it’s best to chunk it.”
Deer management practices probably don’t need to b e altered, either. In fact, LaCour pointed out that, even though this is a severe outbreak, the LDWF is not considering any changes to hunting regs.
“Overall, it’s part of the normal cycle,” he said. “If you find three deer on your place, there are probably some more. If you have 4,000 acres, you might have 10 more. But that’s not a significant impact, so for the most part there’s no need to for any management considerations.”
Sounds like the health department is just trying to make a move to control more.
I don’t think the virus itself is, but people should be concerned about eating ‘sick deer.’ You don’t know what else the deer may have picked-up due to the virus...
We usually have between 7 and 8 deer show up at my lawn all summer long ~ and they keep it trimmed.
The Missouri Department of Conservation encourages donating venison to the poor.
What’s wrong with Louisiana ?
“We usually have between 7 and 8 deer show up at my lawn all summer long ~ and they keep it trimmed. “
Do the deer do a better and neater trim job than when I let cattle into my yard from the pasture? Betcha you get deer fertilyzer too!
“EBT Not Accepted Here” said the new sign at my fishmonger last night.
“What’s with the sign?” I asked.
“People were coming in here ordering the most expensive stuff I have, King Crab legs, lobster, everything! Then, they’d get to the register and hand me their EBT card. I don’t take that! I sell the highest quality products to good clients. I don’t want to take EBT!”
Why culdn’t it be returned to the hunters?
The diseases that afflict deer are not a worry here, as deer hemorrhagic disease is not transmissible to humans; and the more worrisome chronic wasting disease (prion), though not known to afflict humans, can be avoided by not eating the deer’s brain, spinal cord, eyes, spleen, tonsils, or lymph nodes. Which you probably wouldn’t anyway.
Concern for either of the diseases can be mitigated by having someone experienced with healthy deer meat visually examine the meat. If it looks bad, it probably is. So don’t eat it. Likewise if it looks good but tastes bad, don’t eat it.
The bottom line is that state legislators are already looking to change the rules of their state health department to permit this again, so it should be thought of as a temporary, if expensive, glitch.
Had it not come about because of some homeless guy who didn’t like venison, it would happen because some nuts like PETA, who think all homeless should be forced to eat vegan, would have raised a stink.
Fortunately it wasn’t the federals involving themselves, as that would have been a much greater nuisance. Eventually they will, almost guaranteed. Pain in nass.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.