Why Are Deer Being Smuggled into Texas?

[granger]

From Time Magazine. An interesting read...
The sight of deer munching in suburban gardens is a common one across America, particularly in places like Texas' hill country, where at holiday time the ubiquitous roadside deer-warning signs are decorated with round red stickers by an anonymous artist in an homage to Rudolph, the most famous deer of all. So plentiful are the white-tailed deer in Texas that the notion of smuggling deer into the state seems absurd — yet this growing and lucrative illegal trade, with its threat of devastating disease, is challenging federal and state wildlife officers across the country.

read the rest of the story....

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... 61,00.html

 

[Old Bearkat]

That's what happens when you hunt for trophies, not meat. It becomes a sport, and then the cheaters move in. The wasting disease is not something to take lightly, as it seems to be moving south by natural means. Several counties around here in N Illinoisy are now under quarantine for it.

 

[freeagent]

Hint to deer smugglers: Just spend a couple days driving around the southern Canyon Lake area. There are so many stinkin' deer around (no legal hunting due to population) and probably so used to being spotted, they'd come to you like the family dog.

But my pals back up in Wisconsin can back up the wasting disease which is wiping out the deer population up north. Sure ain't the hunters, because most of the folks I know look at deer season as a reason to get away from the ball-and-chain and head up north to play cards and drink beer ... Which reminds me of one of the "classics," a polka song which totally explains the Wisconsin deer hunting season:



SECOND WEEK OF DEER CAMP
by Da Yoopers

Hey there goes one (BANG!) Hey you shot my cow!

It's the second week of deer camp
I got a swollen head
I'm lying with the dustballs
Underneath the bed
An icy breeze is blowing
Into the tongue and groove
My pants are frozen to the floor
And I'm too sick to move
I didn't drink so many
Just durty (thirty) cans of beer
It musta been that last shot
That put me under here

REFRAIN

It's the second week of deer camp
And all the guys are here
We drink play cards and shoot the bull
But never shoot no deer
The only time we leave the camp
Is when we go for beer
The second week of deer camp
Is the greatest time of year

I remember playing poker
That weasel musta won
He's wearing my new swampers
And sleeping with my gun
He's snoring like a chainsaw
The camp smells like a dump
Someone's dirty underwear
Is hanging on the pump
Mickey's in the woodbox
Weener's on the stove
His flannel shirt is smoking (sniff)
I wonder if he knows (YEOW!)

REFRAIN

Beadle's crawling through the door
I think he got frostbite
He passed out in the outhouse
And he's been there since last night
Goofus stumbled through the door
He says he got a buck
He was coming from the wayside
And hit it with his truck
Musty cracked a beer and said
Let's celebrate
Goofus caught the first buck
Since 1968

REFRAIN
fade while repeating refrain

 

[fajitapete]

Those doing the smuggling are trying to introduce better DNA to produce larger horns, and bank accounts. They are targeting a extremely small sector of the business. Most of Texas deer hunters do it on the cheap, spending less than 1,000 dollars a year, still given the numbers that’s a lot of money.

You grow a buck with 200+ class of horns and that sucker is worth 20 to 100K, more as a breeder. I saw a recent article that said 200+ class of sheds could be worth as much as 20 grand. Horns are big business, as we have seen in the news, there are people that will break the rules to get ahead, thinking they can't get caught and to hell with the effect on the rest of society.

The over population of deer in Texas is due to the fact we have removed the deer’s predators. Now humans are the only threat, that and the cars traveling 70+MPH down the road. Most deer have twins, that was natures way of ensuring that one might survive, now both usually make it and that were the overpopulation begins.