When Mississippi a few years back began relaxing its restrictions on hunters baiting deer, one of the voices raised in opposition came from the Mississippi Wildlife Federation.
The nonprofit group of wildlife conservationists correctly said at the time that baiting deer — putting up feeders to make the prey an easy target — takes the sport out of hunting.
The state’s hunting regulatory agency — the Mississippi Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks — didn’t listen, however, and instead went in the opposite direction. Over time it removed some of the most significant limits it put on baiting, including just a couple of months ago dropping any distance requirement between hunter and feeder.
The discovery of chronic wasting disease in this state should have caused the Wildlife Commission to enact a statewide moratorium on baiting, since one of the most common ways that the brain disease is passed from deer to deer is through their saliva. An infected deer slobbering over a pile of corn is creating a contagion waiting for the next deer to come along.
As the Wildlife Federation aptly pointed out, it is ironic that the Wildlife Commission has banned baiting in areas where a couple of infected deer have been discovered while essentially encouraging the spread of the baiting everywhere else by dropping the distance restriction.
The Wildlife Commission, which is supposed to control disease within the deer population, is instead creating the conditions that could help the disease spread. One hand is working against the other.
If CWD spreads, it’s going to devastate the state’s hunting industry. Hunters from out of state who have been coming to Mississippi will go somewhere else. In-state hunters will put their rifles up, either because they are afraid of eating diseased meat or because they don’t want to go through the hassle of having every deer they harvest tested.
The National Wildlife Federation says hunting in Mississippi is presently a $2.7 billion industry annually. Unchecked baiting could put that in jeopardy.
Baiting has always been unsporting. Now we know it to be an economic risk, too.
