Donating Meat - What are your thought?

[brownbear932008]

In some states, that would be an admirable thing to do. In other states, not so much. In much of Texas, there are so many deer that we are encouraged to fill every tag possible. For land owners that participate in the Managed Lands Deer Program, they are REQUIRED to shoot a certain number of deer. Programs like Hunters for the Hungry make sure that the meat goes to people who want and need it.

Same thing here in VA. We now have many counties that are under earn a buck regulations because of deer over population meaning you must shoot an antlerless animal before receiving buck tags. Many of the seasons run from I think it's Sept to March. Many farmers are issued tags to shoot deer in any way they can from spotlighting to you name it. Many of those deer are buried after taking them the farmers if they are lucky can find people who want the meat. As a matter of fact the same thing is happening with bears now also.
I think different areas of the country have much a bigger population of animal's and other areas can't withstand that type of pressure on the resource. I have no idea how many deer we can take in a year here now. I normally shoot 1 maybe 2. But I think my license has 5-6 tags on it then you can buy bonus doe tags if you fill those. Sorry for getting off target here.
I donate mainly because especially the last few years my freezer has been stacked to the bream with elk/moose and deer come in behind those as quality of meat to me. So the deer I take is more for the little I do for herd management in a state that has an abundance of whitetail. I enjoy going to the processor to do that good deed each year feeding someone in need. We also share our prime cuts with many friends and family also when we get a chance. As a matter of fact we are having moose fajitas next week at work for about 15 guys some who have never hunted and they love it. I think hunters have historically shared their harvest ever since this country was settled and always will it's who we are........

 

[devon deer]

I've never been graced with an opportunity where game was such a nuisance that I felt I was doing someone a favor by killing something. If I have an overflow of meat from one year to another, I hold back on the trigger for a while. It's likely one of the reasons I like deer and antelope hunting so much more than elk.

Oh how our countries differ, as there is no public land hunting in the UK, and the deer are over population, if we didn't shoot sufficient deer to satisfy the private landowner there is always someone waiting in the wings to undermine you and get you kicked off the farm, there is no way we could hold back on the trigger, although having said that I have held back because I am getting softer in my old age!
We can either eat our venison, sell it, or give it away, I do all 3.

When hunting in your state of Montana, on my previous 4 visits, I/we have been fortunate enough to eat some, donate lots to the food bank (which I think is a great setup to get the food to those who need it) but I/we have given the bulk to friends whose families have benefited, which is only fair as these 'friends' have been so helpful to me/us in the past.
Whilst I would love to bring some over the pond it just isn't possible due to importation rules.

Cheers

Richard

 

[WyoDoug]

I am not against donating meat and enthusiastically support it. However, many places do not accept wild meat because they have no clue where and how it was processed. But some do. I would call and ask if you want to do that.

Personally, me and the wife will take all donations LOL. We love wild game of all types.

 

[noharleyyet]

I volunteered to cook, guide, and sherpa for a yearly kid deer hunt for 25 years. We accepted donated venison for chili, chicken fried steak, and burgers for 50 youth hunters, guides,
and ancillary volunteers...over a hundred total. Most of the members and directors would take a doe in November and have it processed for the early December weekend.

Due to liability concerns it is all store bought beef now.

 

[hank4elk]

I pretty much live off game meat & give my neighbors meat every year. They love it.
I give my LO tags to friends & locals in need, the rest is up to them.

 

[Straight Arrow]

I volunteered to cook, guide, and sherpa for a yearly kid deer hunt for 25 years. We accepted donated venison for chili, chicken fried steak, and burgers for 50 youth hunters, guides,
and ancillary volunteers...over a hundred total. Most of the members and directors would take a doe in November and have it processed for the early December weekend.

Due to liability concerns it is all store bought beef now.

That's a real shame, but certainly understandable. So I'm not gonna tell you about the seventy pounds of elk roasts donated and corned for the annual St Patty's Day Corned Elk dinner fundraiser.

 

[noharleyyet]

That's a real shame, but certainly understandable. So I'm not gonna tell you about the seventy pounds of elk roasts donated and corned for the annual St Patty's Day Corned Elk dinner fundraiser.

I’m suddenly wanting a Reuben for lunch.

 

[Doublecluck]

We donate meat every year. Sometimes we post it on a local Facebook page, give it to friends, take it to the grizzly discovery center, whatever it’s not hard to find people that will appreciate and use it. Sometimes we will even donate whole animals, a lot of the processors around here will process it for free and give the meat to the food bank. A couple years ago I used a tag I didn’t plan on filling because our freezers were full to put down a wounded bull. When I asked the processor if he knew anyone that would take some of it they told me I could donate the whole thing to the food bank free of charge. Made my wife happy as we had already spent a couple grand on processing that year.

About the only thing that don’t get donated to some extent is antelope, kids will devour a couple antelope like ravenous vultures. Never anything left.

Hell I would even confess that a significant portion of every spoonbill I ever shot was fed to my dogs. So as long as someone or something is eating it and it’s not being wasted I’m not losing any sleep over it.

 

[noharleyyet]

For me, game donation threads Rorschach Greenhorn's bear meat quote.

 

[NEWHunter]

Where I’m from in WI, donating is widely accepted. I believe at one time, and maybe still, the WI DNR has a check box on their apps to donate $1 to game processing. The DNR also has a list of processors on their website that will process your donated deer for free (paid for by $$ donations). I spent some time at a pantry and have seen how appreciated the donation is. I have donated a few animals myself.

Really, there are places here in WI that have more than enough deer and I can only eat so much. It’s a great way to continue to hunt and share with others. The deer were tax deductible too (don’t worry, I saved the paperwork ).

See below for some info on the topic.
www.huntforthehungry.com

And to the OP, I don’t think there is much here to grapple with if you have already cleared the moral hurdle of being a hunter. Since the beginning of human history, those that can hunt have done so and have brought the harvest home to share with their community. Whether giving it to friends and family or giving it to a food pantry, as long as it doesn’t go to waste, who cares?

 

[Gerald Martin]

My personal experience involves a combination of donating, keeping, passing animal and leaving unfilled tags. I've never participated in Hunters for the Hungry or food banks, but I have personally donated a lot of meat to people who I knew appreciated or needed the meat. I do all my own butchering and usually donate only processed meat unless it is to someone who I know is able to process their own and would prefer it that way. I've never been in the situation where I took a hunt feeling the meat was unwanted or a nuisance to be dealt with out of responsibility. I do have to say that I have taken some hunts where meat wasn't the primary objective, but proper salvage and meat care has always been a high priority in terms of feeling like my hunt is successful.

To me, an individual's attitude concerning proper care and consumption of the meat of an animal is a strong indication of character. You've taken the only thing an animal has, it's life, and in some intangible way I associate a responsibility being conveyed to the hunter to properly respect God and His creation by taking proper care of a gift he has given and you have taken. In my mind, there are a wide variety of ways that a person can care for meat responsibly, but it always involves clean meat being consumed by grateful humans. I have always lost respect for and had a hugely diminished desire to associate with individuals who propose a love of hunting and a disinterested, disdaineful or unconcerned attitude about meat salvage. To me it is a mark of selfish ingratitude and I don't care to associate with selfish ungrateful people in the area of hunting and nature. I deal with those types of people in my struggle to make a living and provide for my family and I don't wish to share my limited recreation time with them.

I have no problem with someone making prior arrangements to ensure that the meat from any harvest is donated or distributed to willing recipients, but if I wasn't confident this was going to happen, I wouldn't personally go on the hunt.

My own personal willingness to fill extra tags beyond what our family needs is usually based on my perception of the health of herds and availibilty of animals in a given location. If there are plenty of deer or elk and I have tags in my pocket, I'm willing to put forth the extra effort to gift someone else with meat. If numbers are down, once my family has enough for our personal needs, I shift focus completely and will only harvest an animal if it meets the parameters of a unique "trophy" in my mind, either in size or in terms of a memorable hunt.

I usually extend my own personal time in the woods by accompanying other tag holders and helping them kill their own game instead of pulling the trigger myself and then donating the meat. Seems like the older I get, the less concerned I am about who pulls the trigger. If I'm right there, it feels like it's my animal too and I enjoy those experiences just as much as when it's my tag that's notched.

 

[Bigjay73]

Wasnt it the original intentions of our ancestors who were hunters to do so, so the village as a whole could have sustenance? I believe that those of us that hunt do so to satisfy some ancient traits that we kept through ages of evolution. Seems like the sharing of our harvest with others goes hand in hand with our desire to hunt.

 

[bobbydean]

The year I got my first oryx, my nephew was my come a long. Great hunt. After meat was processed, he asked if he could have some steaks for a boy scout campout. Took a ice chest full. He said the boys ate good and enjoyed. They loved the idea of wild game.

 

[PrairieHunter]

This is the kinda thinking that made me want to start the thread and discuss the issue, I guess to push you a bit in your thinking I would say... fine, accepting your moral paradigm is it only acceptable for someone to hunt a moose if they have 6 kids? It's just me and my wife right now, even if I bring said moose back to CO and assuming I don't hunt for 2 years after killing the moose, we still won't be able to finish it ourselves.

Gus?? (your corgi) could definitely help down a moose if given enough time.

The flip side is the guy who hunts, never keeps or eats any of the animals he kills and celebrates a successful hunt with a great piece of beef. Is he doing the community a favor as a meat philanthropist or is he a low life horn hunter who only cares about big bucks/bulls and is essentially paying the processing so someone else will utilize the meat he shot because he has no interest in the animal besides social media glory pics and horns on his wall and would leave the meat for coyotes if the law allowed.

 

[LousyResident]

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Over 19,000 lbs of whitetail meat donated by six national parks in the DC area. No mention on how it was acquired other than culling.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Gus?? (your corgi) could definitely help down a moose if given enough time.

The flip side is the guy who hunts, never keeps or eats any of the animals he kills and celebrates a successful hunt with a great piece of beef. Is he doing the community a favor as a meat philanthropist or is he a low life horn hunter who only cares about big bucks/bulls and is essentially paying the processing so someone else will utilize the meat he shot because he has no interest in the animal besides social media glory pics and horns on his wall and would leave the meat for coyotes if the law allowed.

Very true... definitely a spectrum of motivations and actions to consider.

Yes Gus the corgi, he's a terrible corgi... he has the most delicate stomach of any dog I've ever met. If he eats anything besides kibble he's a puking timebomb. My in-laws had a corgi named, bear and he was a eating machine... one time they left him alone in the garage for while they went to costco and he managed to eat an entire 30lb bag of food before they came back, essentially his body weight. As you can imagine... their yard was a terrifying place to walk around barefooted for a couple of weeks afterward.