The "CWD is a HOAX" movement is building

[TrumpkinTheDwarf]

So... at this point I'm just basically assuming there will be no more deer or elk in 10 years. It's no wonder to me that we see people arguing against the existing science when no one offers solutions other than kill all the deer before the CWD does.

 

[El Jason]

So... at this point I'm just basically assuming there will be no more deer or elk in 10 years. It's no wonder to me that we see people arguing against the existing science when no one offers solutions other than kill all the deer before the CWD does.

Absolutely fair point. Is it a solution to kill deer as low as you can in the name of CWD? How is that better than CWD running unchecked and keeping deer at a bare minimum?

I struggle with the current approach for sure. But, I won’t be authoring an article questioning the established science.

 

[Nick87]

Absolutely fair point. Is it a solution to kill deer as low as you can in the name of CWD? How is that better than CWD running unchecked and keeping deer at a bare minimum?

I struggle with the current approach for sure. But, I won’t be authoring an article questioning the established science.

Yes.

 

[Jwill]

Author must have a diploma from Uncle Ted’s School of wildlife science.

 

[brocksw]

FFS. We are doomed as a species.

It really gets to the point where I hope it kills them all. Then we can be “100% sure”.

You think that's bad? I'll send you a FB page and some links to interviews.

 

[Hunting Wife]

In my mind, the population reduction is more an attempt to keep CWD geographically restricted, and prevalences low to slow transmission. So that at some point in the future, you still have some clean ground and healthy animals to work with.

The entire point right now, given what we know and the tools we have, is to buy time. We aren’t going to cure anything with our current state of knowledge. It’s to conserve an opportunity to do something in the future if or hopefully when we have better knowledge, or better tools. In almost every aspect of conservation, it is easier and more effective to preserve what you have than to restore what you lost. CWD is no different. The resource we have been trying to preserve is clean ground, and healthy seed stock. But given public sentiment, there is no interest in doing that and I believe we will, or maybe already have, really limited our future options for dealing with this disease.

Just my opinion…worth what you paid for it I guess.

 

[Hunting Wife]

You think that's bad? I'll send you a FB page and some links to interviews.

I shun FB for my own sanity.

Tough to say how that’s working out for me

 

[El Jason]

In my mind, the population reduction is more an attempt to keep CWD geographically restricted, and prevalences low to slow transmission. So that at some point in the future, you still have some clean ground and healthy animals to work with.

The entire point right now, given what we know and the tools we have, is to buy time. We aren’t going to cure anything with our current state of knowledge. It’s to conserve an opportunity to do something in the future if or hopefully when we have better knowledge, or better tools. In almost every aspect of conservation, it is easier and more effective to preserve what you have than to restore what you lost. CWD is no different. The resource we have been trying to preserve is clean ground, and healthy seed stock. But given public sentiment, there is no interest in doing that and I believe we will, or maybe already have, really limited our future options for dealing with this disease.

Just my opinion…worth what you paid for it I guess.

I completely understand that aspect. I certainly didn’t want it to come across that I was bashing, because I’m not. I’m just conflicted with the current approach.

However, as you pointed out, there are many unknowns. And, it’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle, and if we do things wrong now we could potentially make things far worse in the future. It truly is a no-win situation.

 

[El Jason]

I think that’s why articles like this one pisses me off so much. The author clearly doesn’t have the intellectual honesty to admit that there is a high degree of risk in his proposed approach.

 

[Southern Elk]

Between things like CWD, avian flu, and over hunting, the future of hunting sure looks bleak.

 

[Hunting Wife]

I completely understand that aspect. I certainly didn’t want it to come across that I was bashing, because I’m not. I’m just conflicted with the current approach.

However, as you pointed out, there are many unknowns. And, it’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle, and if we do things wrong now we could potentially make things far worse in the future. It truly is a no-win situation.

Sorry if that seemed directed at you. Not at all. Just obviously a subject I still get all fired up about.

I just get so irritated by the “you aren’t 100% sure so we shouldn’t do anything” crowd. If the limited but reliable information you have says the train is going to hit you, do you just stand there until you are 100% sure?

Irregardless of the fact that science is not, and never has been, about certainty.

Between things like CWD, avian flu, and over hunting, the future of hunting sure looks bleak.

With the increasing pressures on wildlife, populations, and especially habitat, it’s only going to get worse. As I watch Montana and other states get chopped up into subdivisions and ranchettes, I often wonder whether we can even maintain viable populations of most game animals over the next 50 years.

 

[El Jason]

Sorry if that seemed directed at you. Not at all. Just obviously a subject I still get all fired up about.

Salud

 

[woods89]

Cwd measures are starting here in southern MO. They are giving out more doe tags and extended our antlerless firearms season this year. No CWD in my county but there has been some in surrounding counties that I hunt.

Several game farms are still in operation around, though. Sure couldn't mess with them.........

 

[BirdManMike]

I dont understand this. Not just this this, this is just another example. People otherwise seemingly sensible, going all in on non-sensical ideas, often little more than far-flung conspiracy theories. Sometimes, people I have known for years.

 

[thomas89]

Even the tech who took the sample from my bull this year seemed very misinformed on CWD. Tried telling me things such as cooking thoroughly will kill the prions, if my bull didn’t look sick I have nothing to worry about, no risk eating a positive animal, etc.

Nice enough kid, went to school around where I’m from. He did say that with the current drought the animals are concentrated and they seem to be spreading it at a higher rate.

Think what you want about it, but the science is still pretty decent on a lot of the issues this guys arguing. It’s like trying to tell my 6 year old anything, “why? Why? But why? Why? Why?”

 

[Redman]

Think of all of the revenue that would be lost if it were a real thing! The makers of Butt Out would go bankrupt!
All joking aside it is sad when greed takes over proof and logical thinking. It shows that those who are in disbelief worry about themselves instead of the future of hunting and our wildlife.

 

[mtmiller]

Seems to me exaggerating CWD is another tool to that end.

Please, tell me more. HSUS, PETA, Illuminati?

 

[Dougfirtree]

I thought the topic of CWD couldn't get much more depressing... I guess I was wrong.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I am not sure how much of a "hoax" CWD is. I have watched the white-tail herd on the ranch we hunt go from numerous deer to basically nothing over the past 10 years.

Fifty percent of the WT bucks we have taken over the past 10 years have tested positive for CWD.

Total deer numbers (WT and MD) have declined by 90% on this ranch.

ClearCreek

Do y’all find alot of dead deer that have died from cwd on this ranch?

 

[brocksw]

Do y’all find alot of dead deer that have died from cwd on this ranch?

I'd guess not. We know it has a slow incubation period. But, from what I've read and the discussions I've had with veterinarians, CWD isn't always this overtly displayed disease. It weakens deer slowly and makes them more succeptible to other diseases, predation, vehicle collisions, etc. It's not like EHD where you find dead deer stacked up on water lines at the same time.