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SLOWING DEER DISEASE ‘BEST THAT WE CAN HOPE FOR’

JIM TURNER NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE — Environmentalists and animal-rights advocates want state wildlife officials to put more restrictions on deer farming and hunting as Florida responds to the long-expected arrival of a contagious disease fatal to deer.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission imposed a management zone covering parts of Holmes, Jackson and Washington counties after the detection last month of chronic wasting disease in a “roadkilled” deer in Holmes County.

The positive test was the first known case of a deer in Florida having the disease, which has been found in 30 other states including Alabama and Mississippi. The disease is described as similar to mad cow disease, with deer becoming emaciated and often being found isolated and trembling. While not considered harmful to people, the disease can result in death within four months to deer.

During a Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission meeting Wednesday in St. Petersburg, environmentalists praised the quick actions to set up the management zone but said more needs to be done to limit the spread of the disease.

“I think this is the time to act, when there’s just one deer that’s been identified with CWD (chronic wasting disease),” said Chuck O’Neal of the group Speak Up Wekiva.

O’Neal suggested reassigning commission officers from immigration-enforcement efforts to focus on illegal importation of deer. He also suggested prohibiting game farms from offering deer for hunting.

“The concentration of cervids in these areas, it’s a large problem in other parts of the country,” O’Neal said. “When you put them together and they’re concentrated, the CWD spreads at an alarming rate.”

Kate MacFall, representing the Humane Society, urged “double fencing” of the game facilities, acknowledging that phasing out such operations is “not probably likely.”

Still, MacFall was critical of game farms as being “breeding grounds for disease.”

“Packing animals in unnaturally high densities, transporting them between ranches, increases the potential to bring the disease to new areas,” MacFall said.

Katrina Shadix of Oviedo called the disease “nature’s response” to deer farming