State Senate chief David Long calls for study of trophy deer industry's disease risks

The leader of Indiana's Senate said he's willing to consider closing the state's borders to live-deer imports in the wake of an Indianapolis Star investigation that uncovered a link between the trophy deer-breeding industry and the spread of disease.

State Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, R-Fort Wayne, called for a summer study session to discuss the disease risks associated with Indiana's nearly 400 deer farms, and address the decades-long legislative and legal stalemate over high-fence hunting.

"I think the whole issue needs to be analyzed thoroughly," said Long, R-Fort Wayne.

The Star's investigation examined the disease risks and ethical concerns associated with North America's $1 billion captive-deer industry, which breeds animals with freakishly large antlers and ships them to fenced preserves to be shot by hunters willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for the trophies.

Some animals are so valuable as breeding stock — with antlers measuring twice the world record for deer taken in the wild — that farmers pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for them.

The industry's chief risk is the spread of chronic wasting disease, a mad cow-like brain disorder that is always fatal to deer and has never been found in Indiana.

Because there is no approved CWD test for live deer, 21 states have banned the importation of live deer, fearing CWD outbreaks. Missouri conservation officials told The Star last week that they plan to issue an import ban, citing The Star's investigation. Whether it will stick is another question. Officials expect opposition from the state's deer farmers, who are aggressively pushing a law that would wrest regulatory control of their industry from wildlife officials.

Messages left with the Missouri Whitetail Breeders and Hunting Ranch Association were not returned last week.

More at-risk deer moved to Indiana

Indiana still allows imports from states where CWD has not been found. The Star learned this week that five farms in Indiana are under quarantine after state officials discovered that deer shipped in from a farm in Pennsylvania could have been exposed to CWD. When the deer were imported, CWD had not yet been found in Pennsylvania.

It's the second time potentially infected deer from Pennsylvania have made their way into the state. In the first incident, one of the deer, known as Yellow 47 for the color and number of the tag in its ear, escaped and was never found.

Such escapes are widespread in the captive industry, raising other disease concerns as well. Bovine tuberculosis, which can infect cattle and humans, has been discovered on at least 50 captive deer and elk operations. A deer farm in Indiana is believed to have spread the disease to cattle, and the government response cost taxpayers more than $1.2 million.

Long said he was troubled to learn about the latest issue involving Pennsylvania deer.

Pennsylvania agricultural officials told The Star last week that a 5-year-old doe that once lived on a Punxsutawney, Penn., farm with more than 200 other deer tested positive this spring for CWD after it died. The Punxsutawney farm and the deer on it had been sold last year. They were shipped to 39 farms in Pennsylvania, as well as facilities in nine other states, including Indiana and Missouri.

"Any one of these (farms) could have CWD-positive deer today," said Bryan Richards, the chronic wasting disease project leader at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center.

Richards said taxpayers will have to foot the bill for the massive effort to track down potentially infected animals in the "web of recent sales," even if no disease is detected. He said many state wildlife agencies also are likely to begin testing wild animals near farming or hunting operations that received deer from the Pennsylvania herd, at a substantial cost.

All of this, Richards said, "exemplifies the risks associated with movement of live deer."

Shawn Schafer, the North American Deer Farmers Association's executive director, said the fact that the farms were quarantined is proof the system is working. "This isn't a raging, blazing case of disease running rampant throughout the industry," he said.

He said there's no need to limit interstate movement because state and federal officials test captive deer when they die and use farm records to backtrack shipments and find other infected animals. The Star, however, found shoddy record-keeping often hampered efforts to track outbreaks, and deer escapes were common. There are also proven instances of nose-to-nose contact with wild deer through deer fences.

Indiana deadlocked for years

Long, Indiana's Senate president, said it may be time for Indiana to follow the lead of states that have banned deer imports.

"The legislature would be well advised to get some facts on what's going on in the rest of the country," Long said, "and to see how some of the other states are responding to this."

State Rep. Sean Eberhart, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said he'd like to do "an all- encompassing study" that addresses both disease and how to regulate hunting preserves. The Shelbyville Republican said he's happy to hear that Sen. Long was open to discussing the idea.

"I need his support, of course," Eberhart said.

Long, who once compared high-fence hunting to dog fighting, agreed that the summer study committee also should discuss the nearly decade-long stalemate over how to regulate high-fence hunting in Indiana.

Currently, the state's four hunting preserves are offering hunts without oversight from wildlife officials, and hunting methods aren't governed by agricultural humane slaughter standards.

For more than 10 years, Indiana's lawmakers have been unable to reach agreement on the nearly annual legislation that gets introduced about high-fenced hunting preserves. A bill that would have set regulatory standards for preserves was narrowly defeated this year in the Senate.

Without action, fundamental questions remain: Are farm-raised deer livestock, or wildlife? If they are livestock, why are they not subject to humane slaughter rules? If they are wildlife, why do hunting rules not apply?

Such issues have been discussed in Indiana since at least 2004, when an attorney general report cited ambiguity in the law and recommended a legislative solution. Lacking such a solution, wildlife officials issued an order that would have shut down the dozen or so high fence operations then operating in Indiana. The industry sued, and a Harrison County court judge ruled the DNR's order was improper because captive deer are livestock not under the agency's oversight. However, less than a year earlier, an Owen County court judge tossed out another case challenging the DNR's authority.

Attorney General Greg Zoeller said that he decided to appeal the Harrison County case in an effort to clarify the law. "This idea of having no clarity is not something that is healthy, really, for anybody," Zoeller said.

While the court case was moving forward, Long blocked the introduction of several House-passed bills related to high-fence hunting. Long told The Star he made a promise during the administration of Gov. Mitch Daniels to let the courts decide. After the Harrison County decision, he says he stayed true to his word and allowed members of the Senate's natural resources committee to introduce a bill this year that set ground rules for preserves and could have opened the door for more in the state.

Even so, Long cast one of the key "no" votes against the bill, which died from lack of a majority in an evenly split Senate.

Hunting community divided on the issue

Long says he's spoken with a number of hunters "who absolutely despise these preserves" and state wildlife officials who "to a person are concerned" about chronic wasting disease and its link to deer farming.

The Star's investigation, he said, raised even more questions that should be addressed. Long said that for years, the deer industry has has the loudest voice in the Indiana debate.

"To be honest with you, we're getting one side of this: That these preserves really aren't as bad as they're made out to be."

Another often-heard argument from the industry is that animal rights organizations bent on abolishing all hunting are behind questions raised about the industry.

After The Star's report, however, big-game hunting groups including The Quality Deer Management Association and the Boone and Crockett Club and Pope & Young clubs raised concerns about ethical issues posed by shooting farm-raised deer behind fences and the disease risks posed by the brisk interstate deer trade.

The Boone and Crockett Club began advocating for states to close their borders to captive deer imports due to the disease risks.

Similar positions have since been issued by the National Wildlife Federation and the Humane Society of the United States.

Call Star reporter Ryan Sabalow at (317) 444-6179. Follow him on Twitter: @ryansabalow.