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NJ: State quarantines deer for fear of brain disea
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
State quarantines deer for fear of brain disease
Sunday, August 17, 2003
BY BRIAN T. MURRAY
Star-Ledger Staff
In a pre-emptive strike against a disease devastating wildlife in the western United States, state environmental authorities have quarantined two commercial hunting preserves and are seeking a court order to test the deer and elk held by one of them.
Chronic wasting disease could have been delivered to New Jersey in January 2002 when 20 white-tailed deer were illegally shipped to Sussex County, the state Department of Environmental Protection argued last week before a Superior Court judge in Morristown. The animals were brought from Wisconsin to the Big Spring Whitetail Preserves in Hardyston and Sparta townships. Nine of them were subsequently sold to a Warren County commercial hunting preserve, the DEP charged.
There is no evidence that the deer had been infected.
But Wisconsin is one of 12 states hit hard by the fatal and highly contagious wasting disease, which attacks the central nervous system of deer and elk much like mad cow disease. Both hunting outfits have already been quarantined by the DEP, but the state wants additional precautions to be taken by Big Spring to prevent New Jersey from becoming the disease's first foothold on the East Coast.
"Our primary concern is the potential introduction of chronic wasting disease into New Jersey's cervid population -- our deer and related species," said DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell. "This is a disease that has reached epidemic proportions among deer and elk in the West and Midwest."
There are only three commercial deer hunting preserves licensed to operate in New Jersey, and the third one, located in Atlantic County, was not involved with the deer imports. All three outfits raise antlered deer on gated properties to offer paying customers a guaranteed opportunity to shoot and bag them, but only with bow and arrow.
Superior Court Judge Theodore Bozonelis set a Sept. 16 hearing to review the DEP's demand for free access to more than 100 deer and a few elk kept at Big Spring. But Bozonelis balked at a DEP demand that Big Spring owner Petar Bubalo immediately erect a secondary fence, with insulating paper, around his already gated preserves.
The judge said he will decide the issue this week after further examining the DEP's claim that Bubalo's import of the deer was illegal and beyond the scope of a state permit under which he lawfully operates his preserve.
"We need to act within reason and not panic. There is nothing indicating these deer are infected, or that any deer was infected at the Wisconsin preserve where they came from," said Evan Nappen, Bubalo's lawyer, who said a new fence would be costly and unnecessary.
Deputy Attorney General Ronald Heksch, representing the DEP, said the imported deer have mixed with deer and elk already on the property, and officials need the authority to euthanize some because examining the brain stem is the only certain way to test for the disease, known by its initials CWD.
"If CWD is transmitted to deer in the wild, it will be difficult to control and will have a devastating impact on the state's economy, deer population and environment," he wrote in legal documents, adding that a second fence could prevent Bubalo's deer from contact with wild deer.
The DEP discovered the deer shipment by accident last month during a conversation with Wisconsin wildlife officials. Authorities reacted by quarantining both of the Big Spring properties on July 31 to prevent Bubalo from removing any animals. The next day, the state quarantined the Mountain Trail Whitetails Bowhunting Preserve in Warren County after discovering that nine deer in the shipment were moved there.
"We are cooperating with the state. We do not suspect any of our animals have chronic wasting disease, but they just want to be sure," said Timothy Matthews, owner and operator of the White Township preserve.
Matthews helped Bubalo import the deer, the DEP said. But Matthews was not sued because he held records accounting for each deer and proved they have always been isolated. The DEP lawsuit claims Bubalo denied having any imported deer at first and still cannot identify which deer on his preserves came from Wisconsin.
The state also claims Big Spring's fence in Hardyston was breached for about two weeks in November and that witnesses saw deer outside the perimeter.
Wisconsin did not discover CWD-infected animals within its state until February 28, 2002, a month after Bubalo's shipment, and it was not until April 2002 that CWD fears prompted New Jersey to impose a ban on importing deer and elk.
But the DEP contends Bubalo could not have imported the deer in January 2002 had he gone through proper channels because it would have taken at least 90 days to process the permits -- long enough for the DEP to have discovered that CWD was detected in Wisconsin.
Bubalo regularly advertises in the DEP's own annual wildlife digest to lure hunters with the promise of "monster bucks" and "guaranteed hunts." But he could be out of business if the DEP finds evidence of the disease.
"This type of quarantine may be necessary for several years since the incubation period for CWD is anywhere from 16 months to five or more years," said Heksch, the state's lawyer.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1061096043217630.xml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>
Sunday, August 17, 2003
BY BRIAN T. MURRAY
Star-Ledger Staff
In a pre-emptive strike against a disease devastating wildlife in the western United States, state environmental authorities have quarantined two commercial hunting preserves and are seeking a court order to test the deer and elk held by one of them.
Chronic wasting disease could have been delivered to New Jersey in January 2002 when 20 white-tailed deer were illegally shipped to Sussex County, the state Department of Environmental Protection argued last week before a Superior Court judge in Morristown. The animals were brought from Wisconsin to the Big Spring Whitetail Preserves in Hardyston and Sparta townships. Nine of them were subsequently sold to a Warren County commercial hunting preserve, the DEP charged.
There is no evidence that the deer had been infected.
But Wisconsin is one of 12 states hit hard by the fatal and highly contagious wasting disease, which attacks the central nervous system of deer and elk much like mad cow disease. Both hunting outfits have already been quarantined by the DEP, but the state wants additional precautions to be taken by Big Spring to prevent New Jersey from becoming the disease's first foothold on the East Coast.
"Our primary concern is the potential introduction of chronic wasting disease into New Jersey's cervid population -- our deer and related species," said DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell. "This is a disease that has reached epidemic proportions among deer and elk in the West and Midwest."
There are only three commercial deer hunting preserves licensed to operate in New Jersey, and the third one, located in Atlantic County, was not involved with the deer imports. All three outfits raise antlered deer on gated properties to offer paying customers a guaranteed opportunity to shoot and bag them, but only with bow and arrow.
Superior Court Judge Theodore Bozonelis set a Sept. 16 hearing to review the DEP's demand for free access to more than 100 deer and a few elk kept at Big Spring. But Bozonelis balked at a DEP demand that Big Spring owner Petar Bubalo immediately erect a secondary fence, with insulating paper, around his already gated preserves.
The judge said he will decide the issue this week after further examining the DEP's claim that Bubalo's import of the deer was illegal and beyond the scope of a state permit under which he lawfully operates his preserve.
"We need to act within reason and not panic. There is nothing indicating these deer are infected, or that any deer was infected at the Wisconsin preserve where they came from," said Evan Nappen, Bubalo's lawyer, who said a new fence would be costly and unnecessary.
Deputy Attorney General Ronald Heksch, representing the DEP, said the imported deer have mixed with deer and elk already on the property, and officials need the authority to euthanize some because examining the brain stem is the only certain way to test for the disease, known by its initials CWD.
"If CWD is transmitted to deer in the wild, it will be difficult to control and will have a devastating impact on the state's economy, deer population and environment," he wrote in legal documents, adding that a second fence could prevent Bubalo's deer from contact with wild deer.
The DEP discovered the deer shipment by accident last month during a conversation with Wisconsin wildlife officials. Authorities reacted by quarantining both of the Big Spring properties on July 31 to prevent Bubalo from removing any animals. The next day, the state quarantined the Mountain Trail Whitetails Bowhunting Preserve in Warren County after discovering that nine deer in the shipment were moved there.
"We are cooperating with the state. We do not suspect any of our animals have chronic wasting disease, but they just want to be sure," said Timothy Matthews, owner and operator of the White Township preserve.
Matthews helped Bubalo import the deer, the DEP said. But Matthews was not sued because he held records accounting for each deer and proved they have always been isolated. The DEP lawsuit claims Bubalo denied having any imported deer at first and still cannot identify which deer on his preserves came from Wisconsin.
The state also claims Big Spring's fence in Hardyston was breached for about two weeks in November and that witnesses saw deer outside the perimeter.
Wisconsin did not discover CWD-infected animals within its state until February 28, 2002, a month after Bubalo's shipment, and it was not until April 2002 that CWD fears prompted New Jersey to impose a ban on importing deer and elk.
But the DEP contends Bubalo could not have imported the deer in January 2002 had he gone through proper channels because it would have taken at least 90 days to process the permits -- long enough for the DEP to have discovered that CWD was detected in Wisconsin.
Bubalo regularly advertises in the DEP's own annual wildlife digest to lure hunters with the promise of "monster bucks" and "guaranteed hunts." But he could be out of business if the DEP finds evidence of the disease.
"This type of quarantine may be necessary for several years since the incubation period for CWD is anywhere from 16 months to five or more years," said Heksch, the state's lawyer.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1061096043217630.xml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>