Would you eat a CWD-positive animal?

[seeth07]

But I'll ask if animal was shot in CWD area.

Which is a very large area now.

Your in WI. Do you not even hunt here then or do you head up to one of the few counties in the great north?

 

[seeth07]

I mean per this map, look at how many counties where basically you shouldn't even be hunting unless you test your deer and then toss them into the garbage once you get your positive result. Some of those counties the test results are over 50%. Others like mine, fond du lac, are still around 20%

 

[NearerTheBone]

OP here.. the responses to this have been lively, but I appreciate everyone's input. I read each of these responses and talked to friends asking them the same question. I wasn't expecting to feel so conflicted on what to do.

I decided against consuming the animal. My reasoning is a little shaky, and I admit that I have double standards. Would I knowingly eat a CWD animal? Sure. Would I eat an untested animal, knowing very well there is a chance that it could have CWD. Absolutely. But I'm not just feeding myself. So I asked myself, would I feed my wife and two daughters a CWD animal? Not a chance. And that was that. (sorry @WildWill - I had to use that line. Enjoy your hunt with your son!)

Who knows, maybe my attitude will change over time. CWD isn't going away anytime soon.

 

[Islander]

OP here.. the responses to this have been lively, but I appreciate everyone's input. I read each of these responses and talked to friends asking them the same question. I wasn't expecting to feel so conflicted on what to do.

I decided against consuming the animal. My reasoning is a little shaky, and I admit that I have double standards. Would I knowingly eat a CWD animal? Sure. Would I eat an untested animal, knowing very well there is a chance that it could have CWD. Absolutely. But I'm not just feeding myself. So I asked myself, would I feed my wife and two daughters a CWD animal? Not a chance. And that was that. (sorry @WildWill - I had to use that line. Enjoy your hunt with your son!)

Who knows, maybe my attitude will change over time. CWD isn't going away anytime soon.

So the big question remains; are you done hunting deer in that area?

 

[NearerTheBone]

So the big question remains; are you done hunting deer in that area?

I've been mulling over that one quite a bit too. I think most likely. Landowner mentioned that they thought deer numbers were down quite a bit this year. Whether that's CWD-related, I have no clue. But 2/3 deer we took from there had CWD, which isn't encouraging.

 

[buckbull]

There are options other than the garbage for cwd meat if you arent going to eat it. Wildlife rehabilitation centers are always happy to get game meat.

 

[hank4elk]

Never hunted a CWD area. Yet.
Had some deer given to me from one I think.
Never shot a sick animal that I kept, I knew of. Have shot very bad off critters and reported.
Had some encephility elk around here a few years ago, one died here and tested positive.

I would not eat a Rinnela meal. Raw or bloody rare wild game.
Seen too many worms.
Ate a lot of wild pigs and bear too. Several road kill elk.

So to OP,I really don't know. Yet.

Seen a lot of folks in recent years that have brain problems tho.

 

[Mountain Man]

From MTFWP CWD FAQ page:

View attachment 350417

Thanks for the info. So for MT, it is a one time occurrence. That’s not something that will cause people to abuse the system. Maybe it’s different in the other states mentioned, but shouldn’t be for MT.

 

[WIbiggame]

I agree that the car crashes are apples to oranges comparison. And even the comparison of the risk of eating wings with salmonella is not pertinent because OPs question was about knowingly positive meat. We all wouldn't eat meat knowingly that contained salmonella.

However, we do know that eating artifical sweeteners, artifical colors, blue light from screens, seed oils etc (edit: tobacco in any form I bet is another one many use daily but wont quit) are scientifically proven to causes health issues some severe.

My question to everyone saying I won't eat it bc there might be a risk or I feed my family that meat; you are making sure to take all those other scientifically known poisons out of your diet and families diets right?

Ultimately you do you and who cares what someone else thinks. But to the people who use those excuses you better be living a 100% clean lifestyle.

 

[mxracer317]

From MTFWP CWD FAQ page:

View attachment 350417

Takes Idaho weeks to get results back, effectively rendering that option useless for the current season.

 

[WIbiggame]

Takes Idaho weeks to get results back, effectively rendering that option useless for the current season.

WI the tag is good for current year and the next. And you get one for every animal harvested. And the tag is either sex.

The other big downside is the testing takes about a week to 2 to get back. So several places that took donated deer for the local food pantries cant because they don't have the freezer space to hold deer until results come back to give the meat away. I know of 1 pantry locally that lost 80% of its sourse of meat because of this.

 

[hank4elk]

Lion is good eating. COOKED or cured.

 

[WIbiggame]

Lion is good eating. COOKED or cured.

Oh 100%!! Honestly was super close to better than elk imo. I enjoyed it when I shot my lion.

 

[hank4elk]

Pork that meows. Backstrap & hams. Good stuff.

I wouldn't eat a farm animal with any signs of sickness. That I know of. Fed some to the dogs tho. Cooked well.

 

[brymoore]

Takes Idaho weeks to get results back, effectively rendering that option useless for the current season.

Idaho has had about a dozen animals test positive. The odds are in your favor not to have a CWD animal.