“That would be the end of our industry”

I don't know what the answers are, and have no experience or even opinion about what they do in Saskatchewan, but I do wonder which weighs heavier, concentrating animals with baiting, or diminishing efficacy in an area where numbers need to be reduced.
 
Being succesful at bowhunting for bears would seem rather difficult without baiting. In New Mexico there is no spring season for bear and no baiting in the fall. Each bear zone has a quota. When the quota is reached, that zone is closed. The archery seasons rarely close a zone. During the rifle season they run the dogs. I don't consider shooting a bear out of a tree fair chase. Obviously, the outfiitters get most of the bears in this state. I don't think baiting bears is any different than spraying scent on a whitetail decoy during the rut. I am not saying running dogs should be illegal. I am saying that baiting should be legal

Edit: I assumed the article was about bear. Baiting deer is another matter. I don't consider baiting deer fair chase but just because I don't want to do it, doesn't mean it should be illegal. I don't hunt whitetail with a rifle because I just think it is too easy. Deer usually feed together at the same source so I don't see where they come off with the baiting thing.
 
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They aren't calling for a ban on bear baiting. It's deer baiting they want stopped because of CWD being spread. The loss of our Deer populations would really kill their "Industry".
 
I'm shocked at how naive the outfitters are about CWD...
I dont think their naive. They just wanna make money no matter the cost and their willing to wager their industry and keep baiting and hoping for the best. I've never hunted Saskatchewan but sounds like the guides are worthless any tom, dick or harry can arrow or stick some led in a good buck hunting over bait. Why do you need a guide for that? My 12 year old niece could guide a hunt over bait.
 
Option #1- end baiting immediately and immediately kill the outfitter business
Option #2- continue baiting, continue outfitting and see how many deer are left in 10-20 years.
 
I can see where the outfitters would complain, based on what I see on the TV shows. Lots of baiting there. They have to make a decision on hurting their business, or potentially hurting their herd even more. As always, several sides to the argument will come to light. Nebraska stopped baiting, when they became concerned and I don't know that it has made a difference, or not. There is still the occasional CWD deer that shows up.
 
I live in Utah. You can't make it 50yrds without multiple trail cams and salt licks. Little did I know there were so many Apple trees in the forest with all the apples laying around. Listened to a guide a while back that runs 125 cams. See others posting pics over truckloads of apples. We are the home to Mossback and Wade Lemmon. Both are famous for being infamous.

I'm fine with, and in fact support ending baiting for deer. And elk.

But I also often drive past a huge elk farm just north of me. I'm more concerned about ending that industry as we already have proof of it's contribution to CWD.

Like I said, from Utah. The former governors family fish hatchery introduced whirling disease to our fisheries. Don't want to see disease from other "farms"

As for the guides. I'm sure it will be rough to ACTUALLY pattern deer. To actual know where they are and what they do, instead of creating a shooting gallery over bait
 
" Said the Canary to the Coalminer"
Never understood baiting personally. Understand the bear in deep woods stuff,but never hunted bear over bait or hunted with dogs.Not my thing.
Felt guilty hunting deer outside my orchard fences ,a couple times.
Feel guilty I have a water source for game & can hunt here....sort of...............lol
 
Seems common sense regarding the transmission of CWD and bait piles.

You’ve got all these different animals chewing on a bait pile,” said Rowledge. “It can be bound onto surfaces and you’re not going to get it off. The science is clear. It’s not complicated. It’s a problem

One outfitter claim - presents the desperation.

“All this chronic wasting disease is in mule deer, which nobody even baits for,” Beebe said.

It has to be tough when faced with living at one financial level and cutting that to a fraction. Family, etc... Then each step beyond. Jobs, town income, provincial licensing income, on and on...

A few people I know budget their financial income inclusive of overtime... I find that a frightening proposition however this? This is a massive hit to family budgets.

From the select outfitters voicing their thoughts in this article, I get the sense it's more treed woodland vs farm fields for their whitetail. Not much to fall back on and keep a reasonable success % that would maintain the almighty U.S. $ rolling in. U.S. would be just as well to sit in a blind on a field in <insert State> with coffee brewed.

Makes me wonder how much protein is mixed in the bait...
 
It seems like this article makes some jumpy conclusions based on the current data. There is no reason to believe that deer in the boreal forest have CWD because the deer in the southern farmland tested positive. The province of Saskatchewan is 760 miles north to south.

Here is what I don't like, "34 scientists, conservationists, veterinarians and activists sent a letter to the federal government". That has antis written all over it and they can't wait to use CWD to shut down our hunting privileges. Once they are gone, they are 10x harder to get back.
 
Those numbers are something we couldn't deal with in the states. However, no deer harvested from the boreal forest areas (where the baiting occurs) were infected with CWD. I smell an alternative motive underneath that paranoia. I think those outfitters have a legitimate gripe.

Fortunately NM has few migrating herds of elk. They are to the extreme North with the border of Colorado.So far no problems up North yet. Hunters can't take heads or carcasses out of units 34,28,19. As long as they comply it should be contained here.
 
Makes me wonder how much protein is mixed in the bait...
CWD is an organism called a Prion. These prions are composed of abnormal proteins. Prions are transmitted to normal proteins. Prions are not composed of nucleic acids like viruses making them a unique organism. However recent science suggests that prions can only be transmitted by attaching to a DNA or RNA strand.
 
I dont think their naive. They just wanna make money no matter the cost and their willing to wager their industry and keep baiting and hoping for the best. I've never hunted Saskatchewan but sounds like the guides are worthless any tom, dick or harry can arrow or stick some led in a good buck hunting over bait. Why do you need a guide for that? My 12 year old niece could guide a hunt over bait.
Once you understand how vast and flat the boreal forest is up there you may change your view about the difficulty. My uncle had a fishing resort near Itasca State Park in Minnesota. The boreal forest there is similar. The only breakup of the landscape is the lakes.
 
We didn't have CWD in Utah...... until we did.

We used a ton of Asbestos in sheetrock and mud. Old guys talked about how much better both were.

Then, lung cancer was "invented" by antis so now we don't.

Point being, change happens. Every industry has had to deal with it.

This says more about how lazy hunters are than any "anti" conspiracy. Of course anti will try to co opt CWD. But us sticking our head in the sand will just back their incorrect claim, that we only care about killing.
 
CWD is an organism called a Prion. These prions are composed of abnormal proteins. Prions are transmitted to normal proteins. Prions are not composed of nucleic acids like viruses making them a unique organism. However recent science suggests that prions can only be transmitted by attaching to a DNA or RNA strand.
I was thinking more on the antler growth. There's a pile of deer catered bait. Protein powder, pellets, etc... Big racks bring in big bucks... All pun intended.
 
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