For Immediate Release 4/8/05
New York State Conservation Council, Inc.
8 East Main Street , Ilion , NY 13357
New York State Conservation Council Appalled and Dismayed by CWD Farmed Deer.
President Howard Cushing Jr. of the New York State Conservation Council, a 70 year old organization, representing over 1200 clubs and associated organizations with a membership of 300,000 conservationists, sportsmen and women, told his members that he was appalled and dismayed at the discovery of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in farmed deer near Rome, New York. “I am deeply disappointed the regulations for captive deer by the Department of Agriculture and Markets were not strict enough to prevent the spread of this dread disease to farmed captive deer in the State,” said President Cushing. “We are appalled and dismayed at the discovery of the deer at two locations in recent weeks. This is a sad time for the wild deer as they may have been exposed to the diseased farmed deer. Many of the wild deer must now be slaughtered because they must be tested for CWD and there is no live test.”
Vice President Wally John has been briefing Legislators about CWD. He said the NYSCC has been following the spread of CWD from Wyoming and Colorado into western Canada and east to Wisconsin and Illinois . “It has been found in farmed deer and elk at many locations in the past decade and we were always afraid that it would be spread to New York by captive farmed deer,” John said. “I know that Montana was able to stop the spread of CWD from farmed elk to wild elk and deer, but other states have not been as successful. Montana had to enact a ban on captive deer farms and preserves and to destroy the existing captive animals to achieve this result.”
President Cushing said, “Strict new State regulations of game farms are needed Now. All facilities that have captive animals should be totally locked down in an absolute quarantine to prevent any movement of live animals around the state, into the state or out of state.” A letter of concern has been sent to the Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets.
The Council calls upon the State to spare no expense to stop the spread of CWD. Our conservation legacy hangs in the balance, as do the lives of over a million wild deer.
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For Immediate Release 4/7/05
New York State Conservation Council, Inc.
8 East Main Street, Ilion , NY 13357
Howard Cushing, Jr., President of the 70+ year old New York State Conservation Council, representing over 1200 clubs and associated organizations statewide with a membership of over 300,000 sportsmen and women and conservationists, issued the following statement concerning the discovery of two deer in Oneida County with Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD):
We are appalled and dismayed at the lack of Agriculture & Markets doing a better survey and management of game farms that have animals susceptible to Chronic Wasting Disease. This disease has been traveling west to east for the last few years, and measures should have been taken to prevent the outbreak in New York State. The possibility of CWD spreading to the wild deer population would have major implications resulting in loss of recreational opportunity; a loss of millions of dollars to the economic benefit provided through deer hunting and recreational watching, hotel, motel, gas stations, grocery stores, etc., whose livelihood, especially in Oneida County, relies on it heavily.
We do not believe that Agriculture and Markets has the capability or expertise that the Department of Environmental Conservation has and therefore should allow DEC to play a major role in this investigation. Furthermore, DEC has prudently taken measures to control CWD to the best of its ability. It has, for example, banned through regulation the feeding of wild deer to help prevent the spread of CWD.
Since it appears there may be lax enforcement on the part of Ag & Markets to properly monitor such game farms, we are now asking Agriculture & Markets Commissioner Rudgers to put a quarantine on all game farms containing deer and elk in New York State until such time as a full investigation has been conducted and determination of whether or not other circumstances that have the potential to destroy the wild deer population have been remedied.
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