Amendments seek to curb deer disease

The definition of captive deer and how they are managed in Missouri could be decided before the state Department of Conservation opens the topic for public comment.

The department's Conservation Commission late last week approved proposed amendments to regulations of hunting preserves and wildlife breeding facilities that hold members of the cervid, or deer, family, including white-tailed deer.

The proposed amendments seek to control the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease, which is caused by a mutated protein that attacks a deer's nervous system. It does not harm humans, but it is fatal to deer and elk. The protein is spread by deer-to-deer contact, either by live deer or carcasses, including through the soil in which they decompose. The disease has no cure.

New regulations recommended by the commission include banning the importation of live white-tailed deer, mule deer and their hybrids from other states; improving fencing requirements for captive-cervid facilities; requiring all deer 6 months old and older that die in a conservation department-licensed facility to be tested for CWD; establishing better record-keeping requirements in conservation department-licensed, captive-cervid facilities; and prohibiting any new captive-cervid facilities within 25 miles of where CWD has been confirmed.

The proposed amendments will be published on Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander's website July 16, triggering a 30-day public comment period. Any comments on the proposed changes will be forwarded to the commission, where they will be reviewed before the rules are adopted, amended or withdrawn.

The item will be placed back on the Department of Conservation agenda no later than October, and the commission will give its approval or disapproval of the amendments, said Ken West, protection regional supervisor for the conservation department. If commission approves the changes, the new regulations will not take effect until March 1, he said.

The public comment period on the captive deer regulation issue falls two days after Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon must take action on another piece of legislation that passed through the General Assembly last month, pertaining to deer jurisdiction.

That bill would shift management of captive deer from the Department of Conservation to the Missouri Department of Agriculture, classifying captive cervids as livestock. Elk in Missouri have been classified as livestock since 1995.

This sort of unprecedented situation, as West called it, could cause a kink in the conservation department's process of passing new captive deer regulations.

Deputy director Tim Ripperger of the main conservation department office in Jefferson City, Missouri, said both pieces of potential changes are "kind of on separate tracks."

The Department of Conservation is waiting to see how that process unfolds and it will assess its next move "based on whatever happens." For now, it should not affect the regulatory process or the public comment period for the conservation department's proposed amendments for captive-deer facility regulations, he said.

Sam James, president of the Missouri Whitetail Breeders and Hunting Ranch Association, is in favor of the legislation that would define captive deer as livestock. James has breeding and hunting facilities on his 1,050 acres about 20 miles east of Columbia, Missouri.

Captive deer are born in captivity and stay behind a fence, he said, never being released into the wild. Breeders and owners of captive deer pay for their animals' veterinarian care and testing, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture offers drought relief for captive cervids.

"I truly believe that they're livestock and not wildlife," James said Monday afternoon.

The Department of Agriculture is qualified for the management of captive deer, and "that's what they're there for," he said.

The House and Senate bills passed by a large majority, and should Nixon veto the bill, it could be overridden, James said. If it were not overridden, he said legal action likely will be taken.

"We are not trying to not be regulated," James said. Captive-deer owners and breeders just want to be regulated by an agency that uses science, facts and reasonable rules for the health of their animals.

The Department of Conservation will hold open houses in June and July throughout the state to discuss white-tailed deer management with residents.

An open house will be from 3 to 8 p.m. June 24 at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 3305 N. High St. in Jackson.

ashedd@semissourian.com

388-3632

Pertinent address:

3305 N. High St., Jackson, MO