View Council Meetings

There is a lot of misinformation about deer and disease. While we all should take the subject seriously there is no evidence that any of the alarmist claims have any basis in fact.

The DNR likes to site statistics about chronic wasting disease in southeast Michigan, what they do not tell you is that all, or at least most of this is restricted to deer farms, and is not in wild deer populations.

•  Deer can not catch lime disease so they can not be responsible for its spread. Yes a tick can hitch a ride on a deer but when have you ever been close enough to a live deer for a tick to jump from it to you. Now a dead dear is another story so if you want to spread lime disease a cull is what you need.

•  CWD or Chronic Wasting Disease can be found in deer but has never been found in Mason County and very few in the entire state, so it is hardly an epidemic.

•  Bovine Tuberculosis is even more rare with only 7 case in the entire United States.

•  High deer density reduces the spread of disease among deer. This is because deer are heard animals and when there are a lot of them in an area they tend to stay within their own heard. So if their heard is not infected it tends to stay that way. By reducing the number of deer via a cull you are actually increasing the odds of spreading a disease.

• There is a lot of information on this site about this subject

  https://www.deerfriendly.com/deer/michigan

•  The following are published extensive testing results conducted by the state of Ohio: Just more proof that the disease argument is bogus cover to justify deer culls. This report does not mean there are no cases of CWD in Ohio, in fact I am sure there are some, but it does indicate that is not of pandemic proportions like some like to imply. One problem I encounter when researching this subject it every state publishes conflicting data on the subject in various reports.

•  DISEASE UPDATE
  Chronic Wasting Disease
  Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a fatal disease of
  the central nervous system of mule deer, white-tailed
  deer, elk, moose, and reindeer. CWD is caused by
  abnormal proteins, or prions (not a bacteria or virus),
  that ultimately destroy brain tissue. This type of disease
  is known as a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy.
  This family of diseases includes bovine spongiform
  encephalopathy (mad cow disease), scrapie in sheep,
  and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in humans.
  Since 2002 the Division of Wildlife has conducted
  statewide CWD surveillance, testing 23,959 deer. To
  date, there has yet to be a wild, free-ranging deer test
  positive for the disease in Ohio. In 2019, a record 3,818
  deer were submitted for CWD testing. Division of
  Wildlife staff collected 899 road-killed deer from all 88
  counties and hunters submitted (directly or via
  taxidermist/processor) 2,831 deer (one of which was an
  escaped captive deer) for CWD testing. An additional
  five escaped or confiscated captive cervids, 32 deer
  displaying abnormal behavior and/or poor physical
  condition, 14 found dead under suspicious
  circumstances, 26 removed in conflict situations, and 11
  others were tested for CWD in 2019. CWD was not
  detected in any of these samples.