A buck with chronic wasting disease.
Yeah, about those new rules for chronic wasting disease …
Never mind.
That’s the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s stance, at least for now. On Tuesday – eight days after making it illegal to impart high-risk deer parts from the entire states of Ohio, West Virginia, New York and Maryland – the rescinded that decision.
Timing is the issue.
Going into the fall hunting seasons, hunters were prohibited from bringing high-risk parts – heads, backbones and the like – from white-tailed and mule deer, elk, moose and caribou from a number of states and Canadian provinces.
When it came to Ohio, West Virginia, New York and Maryland, the bans were partial. They applied only to the counties in which chronic wasting disease, or CWD, was known to exist.
The commission announced changes to that on Nov. 2. Executive director Matt Hough expanded the bans to those states in their entirety, in what he said was an attempt to better protect Pennsylvania’s deer herd and ease law enforcement issues.
Some, even within the agency, questioned not so much the change as the timing of it, coming as it did in the middle of the hunting seasons.
That led the agency to walk things back. On Nov. 10, Hough announced the rule change was being rescinded for now.
In a new press release, Hough said the timing of the change “resulted in confusion and concerns being expressed deer hunters, processors and taxidermists.”
It may still go into effect next year, Hough said. But that will potentially come only after the commission has a chance to “work with those who are affected on further rule changes.”
“The introduction and spread of CWD in our wild-deer population remains a serious issue, and we will continue to regularly review and adjust all measures to minimize the impacts of CWD in Pennsylvania as necessary,” he added.
