A handful of Alabama lawmakers are pushing a bill that could totally upend whitetail deer management there. Introduced in the state House Thursday, the proposed legislation would make all of the state’s high-fence deer private property, and it would make deer breeders immune to the CWD regulations that have been imposed in Alabama, as in other states, to protect wild deer herds.
State wildlife officials are not mincing words about the bill, which they view as a direct threat to Alabama’s wildlife and hunting traditions. The National Deer Association is also speaking out against it.
If passed, HB509 would revise the laws that allow Alabamians to raise and propagate designated game birds, game animals, and fur-bearers. Under current law, licensed individuals can breed not only whitetails, but also elk, fallow deer, and any other nonnative species that was brought into Alabama prior to 2006. Although they’re defined as livestock under the legal code, pen-raised whitetail deer are still considered a public resource in the state.
But HB509 would make all of those captive critters the personal property of the breeders themselves. It would also prohibit state agencies from euthanizing, testing, or prohibiting the transfer of “certain cervids” (notably whitetails) due to disease “except under certain circumstances.”
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According to the current language of the bill, those circumstances would only apply if the specific disease had already been detected in another one of the breeder’s deer, or in a deer that was transferred from another breeder. It’s unclear how those detections could occur, however, if breeders aren’t required to test their animals and if the state isn’t allowed to.
The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources said it is “strongly opposed” to these proposed changes in a statement shared Monday.
“This bill should be disturbing to all ethical sportsmen, hunters, and citizens in Alabama,” Chris Blankenship, the Commissioner of the ADCNR, said in the written statement. “Alabamians have a constitutional right to hunt and fish in this state. HB 509 would jeopardize that right.”
Blankenship said the proposed law would also “drastically increase the risk of the spread of CWD or other diseases to all parts of Alabama.” The commissioner had a few other choice adjectives to describe the bill — among them: “reckless, disturbing, and unfathomable.”
Hunters must currently obey CWD carcass movement and transportation restrictions on deer carcasses in the state.
While not quite as brazen as another recent bill, introduced in Texas, that would have abolished the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for the benefit of deer breeders, the proposed legislation in Alabama is still staggering in terms of what it would mean for wildlife and hunters.
The notion that deer and other wild game are resources to be conserved and held in the public trust for all state citizens is sacrosanct under the North American Model of Wildlife Management. Turning the pen-raised ones into privately owned pets is not only a depressing idea but a dangerous one. As Blankenship points out, it would allow deer farmers to bypass state hunting regulations and put their animals in small pens or fences, where “they could be shot by individuals for a large fee paid to the breeder.”
What’s even scarier, though, at least for wild deer, is that the legislation would severely limit the ADCNR’s ability to inspect and test for CWD and other diseases at high-fence breeding operations. By tying the state’s hands this way, the bill’s proponents seem to be purposefully ignoring the evidence at hand; several breeders have been linked to CWD outbreaks in other deer-farming states, and experts say the transfer of infected deer from captive herds remains a very real risk.
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By preventing the ADCNR “or any other agency of the state” from testing, euthanizing, or even restricting the transfer of farmed deer, HB 509 not only encourages deer breeders to go about their business without considering the implications of CWD. It shields them from the pesky regulations that could otherwise impact their profitability.
Alabama’s CWD regs increased in scope in 2022, when wildlife officials confirmed the state’s first CWD case and implemented its strategic surveillance and response plan. This plan is similar to the ones that are underway in other CWD-positive states. It establishes high-risk CWD zones and buffer zones, and it requires hunters to submit any deer killed in those zones for postmortem testing. The plan limits the movement of deer carcasses and parts, and it prohibits the transfer of any deer (alive or dead) in counties that fall within the zones. It also prohibits baiting and supplemental feeding in those zones.
From Blankenship’s perspective, giving licensed breeders carte blanche to transfer their pet deer wherever they like, without any sort of testing, is the “most concerning” piece of all this, as it would allow for the “reckless transfer of diseased deer” all across the state.
“This is totally unacceptable,” Blankenship said.
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