Are You Going?

A couple days ago, my neighbor, Dr. Archie O. Logist, professor of Phenomenology at the Ganister Technical Institute, posed a question to me that I had posed to some of my friends this fall. “Are you going to hunt deer this season?” he wondered. “With the game commission telling us that 33 percent of the deer they tested from our area were infected with CWD, you might be taking a chance of killing one that has it.”

“But, the commission tells us that there has been no definite risk of people contracting CWD from eating meat from an infected deer,” I replied.

Before I could say another word, he blurted, “Yes, but commission spokesmen have also said that the commission does not recommend eating meat from an infected animal. The commission also recommends having any deer you shoot to be tested for CWD. You have to drop the double-bagged head off at one of their drop boxes with your tag and a note giving your address and phone number so that you can be contacted about the animal. If you are submitting a buck’s head to be tested, you are supposed to remove the antlers and skull cap before you submit the head for testing. If you leave the antlers on the head, you will not get the antlers back from the commission. Most guys don’t even know where the drop-off bins are located to get the deer tested.”

(I looked that up on page 32 of this year’s “Hunting and Trapping Digest.” You can locate the bins online at http://www.arcg.is/1G4TLr, or you can call the CWD hotline at 1-833-INFOCWD. Then, to get your test results by going online, go to http://www.pgc.pa.gov/CWD. Click the “CWD Test Results and Surveillance Data” line under “Resources” and enter your hunting license CID number and date of birth. You can also check your test results by calling the CWD hotline. Results take approximately two to three weeks, and hunters who receive a positive test result will be notified by certified letter, according to information of page 32 of the digest.)

“Well, are you going to hunt, Rich?”

“I am planning to go, Arch,” I said. “If I manage to kill a buck, I’ll have it tested.”

“Do you think other guys will have their deer tested?” he asked. “They should. Though it’s not proven that it comes from eating infected meat, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the human version of CWD, has increased somewhat in Wisconsin where CWD exists.”

“I don’t know what they’ll do. Most guys really don’t think about it.”