Is fear of chronic wasting disease causing people to stop hunting deer?

Wyoming hunter Meg Stanton had to reread her mule deer’s chronic wasting disease results several times. The four-spotted deer she shot last fall in an old burn scar looked healthy. It showed no signs of illness. But the test came back positive for CWD, and now Stanton had a decision to make.

She could either throw away the animal she had harvested, plucked in the field and partially processed, or she could package the meat and eat it anyway. The Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization advise hunters like Stanton not to eat a CWD-positive animal. Many hunters do anyway.

She briefly considered her options, but decided not to take the chance. So, like thousands of hunters from Wyoming to Saskatchewan to Pennsylvania, she took the quarters to the dump. Then she had another decision to make: Should she continue hunting deer, knowing that this could happen again?

As CWD continues to spread across the country and prevalence rates increase in some areas, wildlife managers are asking similar questions of hunters.

Will hunters stop buying deer tags because they are afraid of contracting CWD? And will hunters put the tag on after they shoot a few CWD-infected deer that end up in the landfill?

How hunters think about the risk of CWD

Bryan Richards, emerging disease coordinator at the National Wildlife Health Center, says there’s a “dirty” factor when it comes to CWD and venison.

“Human dimensions work suggests pretty clearly that at some point, when prevalence gets high, and I don’t know if there’s a fine definition for this, but when prevalence gets to 30 or 40 percent, hunters or their families will change their behavior,” he says. “At some point you think, ‘This isn’t worth it anymore.'”

Research from Responsive Management, a research firm specializing in natural resource and outdoor recreation issues, has found that when the disease is discovered in a new location, permit sales and participation drop, but they usually pick up again afterward, said Mark Damien Duda, the firm’s president.

Hunters have what he describes as a moderate level of concern, somewhere between burying their heads in the sand and pretending CWD doesn’t exist and being afraid to touch a piece of venison, regardless of where it came from or whether it’s been tested. People also tend to trust their state fish and game agencies and follow their lead.

On the other hand, Richards says many people still knowingly eat animals that have tested positive.

Most respondents to a group of hunters in Wisconsin who had CWD-positive deer said they planned to eat the venison, Richards says. A retired wildlife disease specialist from Wyoming once told me that many hunters responded to positive CWD results by saying, “Thanks, I’ll eat it anyway.” The caveat, he says, is that those hunters weren’t prepared to feed CWD-infected meat to their children and grandchildren.

Richards often gives talks to sporting clubs and hunting groups about the potential dangers of the disease and watches as people nod in agreement.

“Then I’m done and I walk outside and I see three or four people talking about CWD and smoking a cigarette,” he says. “The message about tobacco use is pretty clear, but a lot of people have chosen not to follow those health guidelines. It’s all about risk tolerance.”

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He found that even after decades of public information campaigns about CWD, there is still a general lack of awareness. One respondent to the survey said he was not concerned about CWD in venison because he always cooked his meat thoroughly. He did not seem to know, or understand, that prions cannot be destroyed by cooking.

While the CWD message must continue, says Kip Adams, the U.S.’s chief conservation officer National Deer AssociationMany more hunters now understand that CWD is a real disease that is wreaking havoc on deer populations. But health concerns are not causing people to stop hunting on a large scale.

“We hear stories about how Bob doesn’t want to hunt anymore because his wife won’t let him bring home venison,” Adams says. “But I don’t think that’s true for a lot of hunters.”

A problem for meat hunters

Fear of contracting the disease isn’t the only factor when hunters decide to continue—or stop—deer hunting. While many of us hunt for the tradition, camaraderie, and challenge that deer hunting brings, many others hunt primarily to fill their freezers with venison. In areas with high CWD prevalence, this becomes a matter of time, effort, and expense when the meat could end up in a landfill.

For example, a successful hunt for a Western Mule Deer can take an entire season, and states like Wyoming will not issue a replacement tag for an animal that tests positive. Some herds in the state have prevalence rates up to 65 percent, meaning that as many as six in ten hunters could shoot a CWD-positive male each year.

In a state like Wyoming, where there is a lot of public land, hunters who live there could theoretically move to another location where the prevalence is lower.

Move east, and the situation changes. Wisconsin replaces tags for white-tailed deer when hunters shoot a CWD-positive animal. But switching hunting grounds in the Midwest and the South becomes more challenging, as many white-tailed deer hunters are stuck with expensive hunting grounds that they own or lease. Some families have hunted the same area for generations.

“We hear anecdotes from hunters or landowners who say that after they get their fourth positive shot, [deer] “If you have four years in a row and throw it away, it’s hard to justify the money if they lease the land,” Richards said. “If your family has been hunting in an area for 40 to 50 years and it’s a CWD zone, it’s really hard to pick up and move.”

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Hunters are needed in the fight against CWD

In the more than 30 years he has been studying CWD, hunting deer with CWD, and talking about CWD, Richards knows two things: Hunting is one of the best ways to control the disease, and the number of hunters is declining.

State wildlife agencies have not conducted comprehensive studies into why hunter numbers have declined. Likely reasons range from lack of interest, access issues and too many activities competing for attention. Could it also be that dirty factor Richards was referring to, or decreased appetite to throw away meat?

He often returns to how surveys show that people say they will quit if they continue to have positive hunting results, but “no state has proof other than license sales are down.”

For example, according to a report from Wisconsin State University, some 60,000 deer hunters have been lost in the past decade. Washington County Daily News. Wisconsin has had CWD for decades, with many counties recording prevalence rates above 20 percent. However, state wildlife officials can’t link the decline in hunting to the rise in CWD, as there are so many other factors at play (such as baby boomers no longer being able to hunt).

Unfortunately, Richards says, ceasing hunting due to CWD fears is probably the worst possible response to ultimately controlling the spread and prevalence of the disease. CWD spreads most rapidly when deer populations are highest. Reduce the number of deer that are exchanging mucus, and that will reduce the number of deer with the disease.

That’s why Doug Duren, a Wisconsin landowner who has been vocal in the fight against CWD, brings as many people as he can to hunt on his 1,500-acre family farm, where the prevalence is 30 percent. Last year, hunters killed a total of 47 deer on his property. He shot only one.

“I’m not so interested in hunting and killing things anymore,” he says. “But we have the ability to control CWD, and if we don’t, Mother Nature will do it for us, and she’s pretty indiscriminate.”

According to Duren, the deer die either by a bullet or by a terrible disease. He thinks a bullet is better.

That’s also why Stanton, the Wyoming hunter, continues to hunt deer. Although she hated to throw away meat from an animal she had hunted, she also knew she was sparing that male years of inevitable suffering and preventing him from spreading the disease to other deer.

“I do not know if [more deer] “I’m going to stay positive, whether I move or not,” she said. “But I do think we need to do our part by trapping deer and getting them tested to see if they’re CWD positive so we have more data. I’m afraid it’s more widespread than we know.”