This Wall Street journal article raised an interesting point about what Michael Pollan called “the most sustainable meat” – venison or wild such as deer. Apparently, until now it is prohibited for American wild game hunters to sell the meat of the animals they shoot on the commercial market. Instead, they use it themselves, donate it to food banks or send it to landfills. The latter two options are especially true for the publicly employed sharpshooters that try to control deer populations in specific locations such as neighborhoods, parks, greenbelts, and townships where they can cause important damage.
The rules prohibiting the sale of wild game stem from the end of the 19th and early 20th century, when commercial overhunting decimated wild animal populations. Since then, conservation efforts have worked – nearly too well, as some scientists argue, pointing out that forests overpopulated by deer can turn into “ecological disaster zones”. Is the solution then to start the sale of venison again to increase population control efforts? How do you prevent a tipping of the scale to the other side? I agree that at least the game that is already shot should be able to be sold and used commercially. The demand is obviously there, as most restaurants do serve venison during the hunting season – which is mostly farmed ‘wild’ game and imported from New Zealand. That seems a double waste of resources if there is domestic game readily available. I am still curious about the exact measures necessary to keep deer populations at optimal levels; it seems a very tricky issue.
When I talked to my Australian friend about this, she pointed out that they have a similar problem with controlling their kangaroo population – a story that involves, amongst many other actors, the Russian government. Curious? These three articles sum the issue up nicely.
What do you think about selling the meat of wild animals that have to be culled? Good or bad practice?
This is really interesting. I think it would be a good practice to sell the meat of wild animals that can bothersome, but only up to a certain point. I agree with you in that selling meat from animals that are already dead; animals should NOT be merely hunted for their meat. This is where you would have problems with decreasing wild animal populations. It is definitely a waste of resources (and money!) if “wild” game is imported from other countries, especially when there is a lot of game available here.
I love your blog; I look forward to reading it with each new update! You’re a great writer, and you talk about very interesting topics. 🙂
Thanks for your comment and feedback! Another friend of mine also pointed out that the fact that there is an ”overpopulation” of deer now may also be due to the circumstance that their natural predators, wolves, have been decimated, which normally would keep the deer at bay. Also, their natural habitat is shrinking through the expansion of suburbs and the urbanization of previously rural areas, which then leads them to overpopulating’ the remaining forest areas. The issue is therefore even more complicated than I thought..
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You sum it up succinctly when you say it’s a very tricky issue.
I think in the UK small scale local sales of wild deer are “allowed”, but for any commercial purposes there’s a whole raft of legislation that needs to be complied with (mainly for food safety), consequently, most wild venison seems to be sold from the back of a Landrover at night…
You’re right too about the lack of predators and consequent issues for animal welfare that brings for expanding populations.
The Deer Initiative in the UK tries to provide science to inform and develop sustainable management strategies. A tricky task:)