Make no mistake about it: Chronic wasting disease is a potential threat to our whitetail resource and our deer hunting heritage. The deer community has known about this for the past 15 years (since CWD was found east of the Mississippi), but nothing substantial has been done about it.
That’s not to say nothing has been done. We’ve seen some drastic, albeit short-term, attempts at localized herd eradication and bans on practices such as baiting and feeding.
The latest is the ill-founded fear over commerical urine-based deer scents. Several states have enacted outright bans on urine-based attractants, while others have drafted regional bans and/or rewrote rules to allow only synthetic lures. Several organizations within the hunting community have piled on and have spent countless hours pontificating about the “potential risks” involved with urine-based lures of any kind.
Yes, CWD is a potential threat, but don’t let that get in the way of these facts:
No. 1: We still don’t know enough about the disease, how it’s spread and its true ramifications.
No. 2: There are more important matters to address concerning disease transmission than capricious changes to regulations that don’t even nudge the needle of needed change.
Some of hunting’s biggest proponents are caving to irrational fears over bottled deer scents. We’re talking about trained biologists, even folks with research backgrounds. The “Hey, we’re at least doing something” battle cry is a thinly veiled excuse for relevancy. They need to do better than that.
The straight-up odds of a deer contracting CWD through ingestion of a commercially sold urine-based hunting scent are very small. Enacting urine bans shouldn’t even be the 20th thing on the menu. If any individual or group is truly serious about stopping CWD, the immediate discussion should begin with mandatory testing of all captive deer and end with massive herd reduction of infected populations (both wild and captive).
Problem solved, right? Wrong. Research indicates that wild, low-density deer herds won’t help stem the spread of CWD because young disease-infected deer will travel longer distances to disperse from natal range.
There are no easy answers with CWD. We, the deer hunting community, need to take the disease seriously, but at the same time our state and national leaders need to sharpen their strategies, grow broader shoulders and stop messing around with superfluous “solutions” such as urine bans.
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Pursuit Channel Vows Anti Offensive, Safe Harbor
GLENDALE, Ala. – The global movement sworn to abolish hunting, fishing and shooting recently struck a defining blow against outdoorsmen and women worldwide, illustrating increased power to impose anti-science, anti-conservative agendas on the stewards of modern wildlife management and conservation – namely, the traditional outdoor family.
The catalyst in this bloodletting by anti-hunting forces was Philippa King, CEO of the United Kingdom-based League Against Cruel Sports. King’s assault – Bambi-effect hate speech and lies – against the Outdoor Sportsman Group (OSG), America’s largest consortium of outdoor media, was disseminated through internet messaging, an electronic petition and on-air vitriol by British television personalities and politicos, whipping up a comparatively small mob of English soccer fans.
OSG, the parent of Outdoor Channel and Sportsman Channel, with ownership levels in both American and European professional sports franchises, responded by apologetically removing dangerous-game hunting content from the UK version of its My Outdoor TV (MOTV), a new subscription-based internet streaming platform.
“OSG’s debacle becomes the third or fourth white-flag submission since 2012 to anti-hunting/anti-firearm factions by major American companies trading in the traditional-outdoor space,” said Rusty Faulk, CEO of the Pursuit Channel. He continued:
“Ultimately, for those who should be in the know, you’re either supporting the wise-use of our natural resources, a model maintained by ultra-passionate hunters, fishers, shooters and accredited wildlife scholars – or you’re against us. Missteps, ostensibly by well-meaning groups within our own ranks – oftentimes by uncommitted corporate heads who lack the education and the will to do right by wildlife and outdoor enthusiasts – increasingly endangers our outdoor heritage, the wildlife we’re sworn to perpetuate and our constitutional right to bear arms.”
OSG’s cowardice has sparked no small amount of internal outrage, including this response from Ted Nugent, Outdoor Channel’s most prominent spokesperson: https://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/blogs/soulless-dishonesty-political-correctness.
The strike against OSG and outdoor enthusiasts was fueled by change.org, an online petition aggregator and far-left propaganda machine funded in large part by George Soros, the wacky multi-billionaire perhaps best known in American outdoor circles as the world’s most dangerous threat to civilian firearms ownership.
Current social media campaigns from change.org include petitions to “Stop Arby’s” from serving chicken sandwiches and “Save the Yellowstone Grizzly.” The latter includes an impassioned endorsement from big-game sport fisherman Yvon Chouinard, the billionaire founder of the Patagonia clothing brand, who wants to halt federal and state wildlife authorities from managing sustainable grizzly bear populations across the American West.
“As a high-value target for these anti hooligans, Pursuit Channel has begun dedicating additional resources to take the fight to them, rather than counterpunching against this great scourge,” Faulk continued. “Our first step is redoubling our support for the likes of Safari Club International and the National Rifle Association, the free world’s ultimate bastion against the antis for more than a century.
“We are similarly committed to all others who value the importance of incorruptible outdoor media, those independents and groups who are increasingly concerned about the impact of following a perceived flagship that’s so recklessly off course.”
Pursuit Channel, www.pursuitchannel.com, is presently available in more than 42 million U.S. television households and millions more via HD linear and OTT feeds. Pursuit is the only audited outdoors television network viewable to all DIRECTV HD (604 PRST), AT&T HD and DISH Network (393 PRST) subscribers, and it is available to all Fios by Verizon and Centurylink Prism subscribers.
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JOIN THE CAMPFIRE AT THE SATURDAY NIGHT DEER CAMP!
Deer & Deer Hunting invites you to our new Saturday Night Deer Camp, only on Pursuit Channel.
Saturday Night Deer Camp is a primetime block of shows kicked off each week with the award-winning Deer & Deer Hunting TV. Hosted by Dan Schmidt, Gordy Krahn, Mark Kayser and Steve Bartylla, the show is in its 14th season and covers everything related to deer hunting, from tactics and strategy to gear, biology, great hunts and more.
Following DDH TV, you can watch Destination Whitetail, The Given Right with Kenneth Lancaster and then Land of Whitetail. These four shows make Saturday Night Deer Camp your must-watch viewing this year.
Check your local listings for Pursuit Channel. It’s also available now on AT&T U-Verse, Channel 1644, among other networks.
Saturday Night Deer Camp: It’s all about the people, the places and the camaraderie that make hunting a lifestyle. Only on the Pursuit Channel!
