Hunting, wildlife conservation, and gun ownership in the United States are special. Unlike in Europe, where wealthy landowners and royalty held certain rights to hunting, wildlife, and guns, Americans are the beneficiaries of robust public trust ownership principles. Because of lessons learned hundreds of years ago, every whitetail deer, turkey, quail, alligator, fish, and other wildlife species that is in this great state belong to ALL of us. Unfortunately, some folks, including those charged with representing the public and safeguarding our wildlife for hunting and their associated economic benefits, would like to change that.
Historically, public ownership of wildlife and the right to hunt them have been closely tied to our rights to keep and bear arms. Because most American’s have always enjoyed widespread access to firearms, our ability to hunt and consume wild game has been enjoyed by people of nearly all economic and social classes - regardless of wealth or privilege. When dead wildlife were bought and sold generations ago, we nearly lost some of our most iconic species – white-tailed deer, wild turkey, wood ducks, and hundreds of species of birds that were sold only for their feathers. Deer, for example, had dwindled to only 1,500 animals throughout the entire state.
State law (Miss. Code Ann. § 49-7-51(1)(a)) prohibits the buying and selling of white-tailed deer. Up until last month, our Attorneys General have all agreed with established law. However, a new opinion from the current Attorney General, Lynn Fitch, has concluded: “the Commission could craft a regulation allowing for the commercial trade of white-tailed deer held within high-fenced enclosures between registered captive breeders without specifically contravening an express legislative act.”
Not only do we believe this conclusion is erroneous and contrary to Mississippi law and past Attorneys General opinions, but we have significant concerns should the State and Commission develop a regulation allowing for the sale of deer. The sale of wildlife sets a dangerous precedent for the future of hunting and wildlife conservation in our state, especially when infectious diseases like chronic wasting disease (CWD) threaten the future of our deer and deer hunting heritage. Because of CWD, we are already witnessing a reduction of deer, especially mature bucks, and hunting success in parts of the state. And at a time when putting food on the table is important to so many Mississippians. This Attorneys General opinion is also opposed by the majority of the 780,000 sportsmen and women across Mississippi, most of whom support fair chase hunting and believe that wildlife should continue to belong to the people of this great state. Wildlife should not be up for sale to the highest bidder or the politically connected.
We must ensure that our elected officials in Mississippi, from the governor who appoints our wildlife commissioners, to the Attorney General who interprets our wildlife laws, for example, protect our native wildlife and the associated recreational economy, and that healthy, native populations of wildlife remain accessible for all Mississippians to enjoy.
The undersigned organizations, representing hundreds-of-thousands of hunters, anglers, wildlife professionals, outdoor enthusiasts, and wildlife-associated businesses firmly stand in opposition to the commercialization of Mississippi’s public wildlife. Mississippi’s deer are not for sale today, nor should they ever be.
Yours in Hunting and Conservation,
Tony Schoonen – CEO, Boone & Crockett Club
Nick Pinizzotto – President and CEO, National Deer Association
Ashlee Ellis Smith – Mississippi Wildlife Federation
51 comments:
lynn fitch.....is she now an expert in wildlife biology?
this is the same woman who shoots clipped wing ,tame, pen-raised and released bobwhite quail on a shooting preserve and calls it a hunt.
Opinions of the Attorney General are advisory only and not binding in a court of law.
They finally got an unqualified attorney general who is easy to influence.
I reckon if you could buy venison at the grocery store next to the skinless chicken breasts it'd take some of the macho out of shooting them off a corn pile at the camp.
Opinions aren’t binding in court, but they do provide absolute civil and criminal immunity if you follow them.
Follow the money (to Fitch's PAC). Lynn, how is the China law suit coming along?
The management of wildlife in this state is an absolute joke. The fact that we have a commission comprised of people with pecuniary interests in their decisions is a total affront to the model of North American conservation. Add in that they get the final say in things over biologists and it ends in a real tragedy. Disgusting whoring out of resources.
At least Polles is gone. Now disband that dumbass commission and we might make some ground.
The high fence boys have no clue about hunting. These are the kids that got the participation trophies in little league. The people that pay to go hunt a fenced in animal are even a lower form of this same group of kids. I would be willing to say that 75% of hunters under age 40 would starve to death if you dropped them in the wilderness with a gun, a box of salt and a sharp hunting knife. If you took their corn piles, cameras, drones and captive game from them they would cry like a bunch of babies. This is the same bunch that wears Sitka gear to the tailgates, ride around in the the fancy trucks their daddy bought them and are experts on football and game management. Nothing but a bunch of snotty nose little mama's boys.
Mississippi is the land of commissions, which is where political patronage is rewarded.
Meanwhile - With my commercial license, I can sell catfish but not bream, bass, crappie or buffalo. Nor can any Mississippian legally buy or sell frog legs unless they are harvested in another country. We don't hear the wildlife folks squawking about any of those realities.
How much sense does it make that we cannot harvest and sell our own abundant fish and frog legs, but we can buy those uninspected products raised and harvested in the dung-waters of China and South America?
And when you order Tilapia in a restaurant or buy it at Kroger you don't know what the hell you're getting since Tilapia simply means 'fish' in multiple languages.
"Opinions of the Attorney General are advisory only and not binding in a court of law."
You reckon that's why they're called 'opinions'? Of course they're not binding but are sought as the basis for action by municipalities and agencies all across the state.
Me: (Googles "pecuniary" and adds to own verbal lexicon)
Good one, 8:50.
Driving on a diagonal two-lane about three hours NorthEast of Austin TX, I saw a 20 head herd of domesticated mule/white tail deer around a stock tank in a fenced field, some drinking, some resting on the ground with legs folded beneath them.
If they are raised to sell, butcher and package, I see no problem, though I don't personally care for venison.
Elk is the most delicious meat on earth, that's what I'd raise, if possible.
January 5, 2023 at 8:55 AM
+100,000
@8:55am Dayummm Dude, based. Mama's boys for real! Well said.
@ 8:55 I can't say your wrong but I do think you are pointing out the exception rather than the rule. I grew up as a non-hunter in the city and didn't learn about woodsmanship until my 30's when I moved to MS. I was fortunate to work with some old-school rednecks that taught me how to scout, stalk, track, dress, skin, process, etc. My kids learned alongside me and grew up with blood on their boots. These days I'm more interested in management and can afford to drop off deer at the processor. When we show up to unload in Wayne Co. there aren't any fancy trucks in the lot and I am the only one wearing Sitka camo. My point is that I believe the majority of deer hunters still hunt for the enjoyment and sustenance. There are always the bad apples as you mention - there are also poachers or the neighbors feeding deer just across the property line. High fences are not necessarily an evil thing - they can also be a management tool under the right circumstances.
Deer Hunting - ride a 4-wheeler to the baited food plot, sit in a tree stand or a heated plastic box until an animal ambles along to consume it's scheduled meal, drag the carcass to the processor.
8:50 nailed it. To the frustration of biologists at MDWFP, wildlife management decisions are made by powerful, well connected political appointees on the commission. And ditto to Polles being gone; I’m not sure of the limits on what I can say here, so I’ll just leave it at that.
Free the cattle, free the catfish, free the goats, free the hogs, free the chickens, free the Cornish hens, free the turkeys, free the ducks. Oh lawd!
January 5, 2023 at 9:16 AM, you haven't had the right cook.
This idea, commercialization of wild game, needs to be killed with fire and the ashes scattered from Biloxi to Iuka.
"The people that pay to go hunt a fenced in animal are even a lower form of this same group of kids."
Then there's people who are driven at 85 mph to shoot clip-winged quail, released from a cage up at Louisville. Take Phil Bryant for instance.
Farm raised venison could be an industry for MS. It's on the menu at a lot of nice restaurants in Canada, and very tasty.
However, I agree with 9:16 that Elk is pretty hard to beat.
This has Billy DeViney's name all over it. It's known knowledge he has been pushing for this and high fence operations for years. High fence operations are how you introduce diseases into a wild deer herd.
It may be true that you can't beat an elk's meat, but the point here is that deer belong to all the people to either hunt, photograph or ignore...not to a few high-fence entrepreneurs to wipe out and monopolize.
Take a look at the MDWFP commission. Do you think those guys know much about actual hunting? Gary Rhoads, Scott Coopewood, Bill Cossar? Are you kidding me? Interesting to know that Cossar is a "rancher" while sitting on the commission. The way the commission works is they take orders from the legislature and don't do anything on their own.
This is just greed, plain and simple. First they got the high fences approved, now they want to commercialize once of the primary natural resources of Mississippi. I guess cattle aren't sexy enough for them.
How many other states are doing it? How is there hunting?
Commercially raised deer would have to be isolated from wild deer because the deer rancher wants the meat to stay merchantable. Seems unconstitutional not to be free to raise deer herds on private land for consumption, just like catfish. This does not imply inhumane slaughter by gunfire in an enclosure, which hunter purists here use as a red herring.
No ethical difference between farmed catfish and farmed deer meat: both should be available wild or farm raised. In fact farmed deer could be safer to eat than wild, just as catfish are.
Granted its not directly topic related, but to me...Elk is the worst wild game I've ever tasted and I am thinking now that I need to try it again with a different chef.
@ 11:20: They are in Starkville.
@12:26pm
I had charcoaled elk steaks each day for a week once, in Marble CO. My host, the elk hunter, had hung the butchered meat in a shed, next to his house, where it froze.
No meat before or since could compare in flavor. Certainly the wild diet of the animal contributed.
Ima open a "BuckEEs" drive thru canned hunt place with Texas genetic engineered deer to satisfy our .01%'s unquenchable thirst for bigger (than yore's!) wall hangers at little to no exertion. First!!!!
Black tie only, and you'll have to at least have the de rigueur black Range Rover to assassinate a "trophy."
These guest columnists intentionally misrepresent the law. The statute specifically says: "It is unlawful . . . to buy or sell . . . within this state, any . . . game animals . . . EXCEPT AS SPECIFICALLY PERMITTED BY LAW OR REGULATION. Section 49-7-51(1)(a). The statute expressly envisions an agency regulation authorizing the sale of game animals, a term that includes deer. Whether that is a good idea is a policy question worth discussion, and the best answer might be "no." But, the AG's opinion only points out what the Legislature has already said.
Catfish don't walk from pond to pond, and aren't subject to chronic wasting disease.
Comparing Texas to Mississippi is apples-to-oranges as well. They have a lot more land to work with.
12:02: You're the only one who argued that "red herring." I moved from Texas to Mississippi for a reason, and have no desire to once again live in a state that is completely bought and sold by a handful of rich white trash.
If you think Mississippi government is corrupt, go live in Texas for a while. The Texas DOT couldn't account for a BILLION dollars several years ago and chalked it up to an "accounting error."
If we could reduce the deer population by 95% that would be a nice start. I dodge deer on the way home every night only to have the camp out in my yard and eat everything in sight.
Lynn Fitch needs an opponent in the Republican primary
MS deer were supplemented from Wisconsin back when our native population was very low. Now they are as numerous as squirrels. They eat your neighborhood annuals and litter the roadways after cars hit them. No pure and holy Daniel Boone stuff going on here.
You can buy any fish caught in the Res, Deer or any other wildlife BoBo can kill in Madison!
All the arguments made by these groups refer to "wildlife" and that "wildlife" is available to be hunted (fished, also I assume) by anyone.
While this is true, not all animals, birds, and fish are available to everyone as they say in their opening paragraphs: the catfish I raise in my field ponds are produced for sale to the general public; pen-raised quail are a commodity that some raise for their private business operation (not a form of quail huting I enjoy, but one I recognize) and this also now applies to pheasants in the state. Shrimp are raised in enclosures by 'farmers' as are oysters. Try to scrape your own dozen on the half shell off the reefs and you will learn quickly that those are not there for everyone's picking.
Plenty more examples could be made - and not all relating to animals, birds or fish that are raised as a commercial product. Certain fish are available to be harvested in the wild and sold today.
The issue here relates not to 'wild' white-tailed deer by rather deer that are bred and raised in the same manner that top quality beef cattle are bred and raised.
Many folks don't like the high-fence enclosures - don't like the concept, don't like the process, and some are just jealous of the folks who have the money to do this. Frankly, I'm not a fan of the process either, but it doesn't affect me. I am not allowed or entitled to hunt on private lands, whether it is enclosed by a fence or not. And others are not legally allowed to hunt on my small acerage, although a few law-breakers do and the mess they leave is shameful.
The AG opinion here is just that, recognizing that ALL AG opinions are written in response to a specific question with specific details included in the question - interesting that this release doesn't bother to include the question posed. But to say that I cannot breed an animal, and sell it to another breeder is not the same issue as whether I can hunt for wild animals and then sell the meat through a grocery store is not the same legal question.
Lets' get down to basics, the age old argument of whether one can or should hunt deer with dogs.
I believe current Mississippi law holds that I cannot, without state issued permit, keep or have a live deer, in an enclosure, on my property.
Fire-ants wiped out our quail population, Warfield Quail up in Gunnison closed down decades ago and unless you're a governor or commissioner, you bout shit outa luck with that menu item.
Speaking of Commissioner Coopwood (Cleveland), he closed down Mississippi's only state park (Rosedale) with observation tower situated right on the Big Muddy. Now we hold the honor of being the only state on the Mississippi River without one. But he owns several newspapers and a magazine and politicians do love them sum access to newspapers and magazines.
I can buy red tailed deer harvested in Colorado at a butcher shop in Crystal Springs. They also sell goat meat. Shoutout for Wilson's Meats. Take a large cooler if you shop there because they have some top-quality meats and their homemade sausage is awesome.
Could argue that dog hunting is more sporting.
Whoever wrote this article is either being disingenuous or dishonest. The concerns they express about CWD are questionable, considering high-fence owners can already transport deer between enclosures within the state. 40 Code Miss. R. Pt. 2, R. 8.2(D). Also, I don’t personally know any high-fence owners, but I would suspect these people, who have invested lots of money in their high-fences and are permitted and regulated by the MDWFP, are hyper aware of whether CWD is present within their herds. It is also worth noting that the AG opinion only speaks to “registered captive breeders,” not all high-fence enclosures.
Untapped food source. Hit it. MS has 1.75 mill deer and hunters take 280k a year. Hunting going down and population going up. We need to harvest for population control
BoBo dont have froglegs
"Catfish don't walk from pond to pond, and aren't subject to chronic wasting disease."
A red herring posted by the guy who calls out red herrings.
Note: Catfish were being sold legally in this state (by fishermen) almost a century before there was any such thing as chronic wasting disease. Apples and flip-flops.
"I reckon if you could buy venison at the grocery store next to the skinless chicken breasts..."
I reckon so, but you can also buy gator meat at the grocery store next to the skinless chicken breasts...unless, of course the gator was harvested in Mississippi.
One of the problems is we've had, for three-quarters of a century, too damned many state-employed cowboys riding around in pickups with blue lights influencing the legislature. And every one of 'em has three or four freezers in the shed.
@January 6 at 10:46 am
You nailed it on CWD concerns. There have been zero (0) reported cases of CWD from within enclosures in MS, and those deer are tested at a much higher frequency than deer outside enclosures.
7:23 a.m. wrote: "A red herring posted by the guy who calls out red herrings."
Actually, I was calling out the guy who called out a "red herring" that no one had even raised at that point in time.
Jan. 5 @1:58
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