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Update: Legislators Look To Lift Michigan Bait Ban; State Holds It’s Ground
From the Detroit Free Press:
A trio of state lawmakers called on DNR Director Rebecca Humphries to rescind a ban on deer baiting in the Lower Peninsula that was enacted in response to an outbreak of Chronic Wasting Disease on a game farm in Kent County.
State Reps. Jeff Mayes, D-Bay City, and Joel Sheltrown, D-West Branch, along with state Sen. James Barcia, D-Bay City, said the economic impact on the growers of bait crops could be devastating, and that reductions in the deer harvest by hunters who stay home rather than go into the field without bait could actually contribute to the spread of the disease (as larger herds congregate).
And from an AP story on Mlive.com:
Michigan wildlife officials Wednesday stood behind their decision to ban deer baiting in the Lower Peninsula despite pressure from a few lawmakers. . . .
The DNR said in a statement the ban will help preserve a healthy deer herd. Disease can be spread through deer saliva and other secretions. The DNR said congregating deer at bait sites increases the chances of spreading disease.
Baiting is not hunting. plain and simple. if the only way you can kill a deer is by louring it into an easy shot, you are not a hunter in my book.
Nate
Posted by: I'm in school right now | September 18, 2008 at 12:35 PM
It is a bunch of crap. The Michigan Wildlife officials or lets just say DNR officials are a bunch of idiots. If baiting is going to spread this disease then so are apple trees, oak trees, water holes, small food plots, natural mineral licks, licking branches, corn fields, bean fields, shrups, and everything else that deer come within contact of. So we should get rid of all of these concerns as well, right? It seems like the DNR over-reacted to this whole situation and now is taking the slack for it, and they should be. This is a stupid ban that affects more then just hunters, like the farmers/markets/and the overall ecomony of Michigan. Banning baiting is not the answer to this problem. The DNR and/or wildlife officials are causing a widespread of overpopulation, more car-deer accidents, the possibility of other disease to spread rapidly becuase of population problems, more damage to the ecomony, more crop damage, less hunters in the woods, less youth in the woods. In my opinion these officials have failed us in their position and they should be ashamed of themselves for the "NEW" issues they have now developed.
Posted by: Bill | September 18, 2008 at 12:44 PM
Oh-ya Nate -- comming from someone who shoots birds on the ground
Posted by: hj | September 18, 2008 at 12:45 PM
This issues goes beyond "needing" bait to kill a deer Nate. Think about it and understand the effects that are taking place because of this ban. I don't need bait either, have I used it-Yes! I've killed trophies both with and with out baiting. Using bait does not mean your a bad hunter and not using bait make you any better of a hunter. That is rediculous to think any different.
Posted by: | September 18, 2008 at 12:50 PM
hj, i pheasant hunt. i shoot em in the air so shut up.
no name, i'm just so against baiting cause i love stalking and killing. baiting just seems so wrong.
Nate
Posted by: I'm in school right now | September 18, 2008 at 12:58 PM
Nate,-- If Ted nugent says its ok to bait , Then it is ok to bait.
you should take off you PETA suit and act like a man.
Posted by: george | September 18, 2008 at 01:00 PM
PETA = People Eating Tastey Animals.
( Bait or No-Bait )
Posted by: cam | September 18, 2008 at 01:06 PM
HaHa, thats great!! I like that. oh and great point.
Posted by: | September 18, 2008 at 02:40 PM
Baiting isn't hunting and it is good they finally have a good reason to get rid of it. if "taking of your peta suit and act like a man" means you have to bait, you are one sorry excuse for a man. A real man would put his time in to hunt deer. As to the post above that said if baiting is illegal then all food souprces that deer eat should be, the deer are most suceptable(?) to it when they are in small areas and come in direct contact with one another. What do you think is going to happen to the feed producers when all the deer in michigan, and IL, Indiana, Wisconsin, etc. die from CWD, I think you people do not fully understand the severity of this disease. These feeder growers are pretty short sighted to be against this and maybe need to diversify into foodplots or other areas to get past this
Posted by: Jonny | September 18, 2008 at 06:06 PM
Jonny,
Baiting has been a national past time before you were born.
Its not just for hunting -- its for viewing.
The problem with the Michican deer heerd is not baiting.--Its in-breading.
Season needs to be longer and more deer need to be killed.
Once the herd is healthy then we can manage it.
Your support for PETA is hypacritical as you say you are a hunter.
Take some time to decide if you would like to grow to become a man or if you would prefer the lifestyle of peta.
Posted by: concerend | September 18, 2008 at 06:17 PM
? The peta comment was referring to a few posts up. If it is for viewing as you claim, how do people in other states "view" deer or even hunt them without bait? I have been hunting a long time, as well as the rest of the people in Minnesota, South and North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, and every other state that doesn't allow baiting, and we seem to do just fine. I bet you are proud of the deer you shot over bait. You say something like "Damn, I sure had to hunt hard for this ten pointer, I must have had to fill up my feeder 3 times this summer and fall, but boy that mollassis and apples really did the trick." MAN UP!! put your time in. Now that said I would agree that the deer in Michigan are overpopulated, and more need to be killed, but seems to me the more deer there are, the less you bait cuz more deer= more deer sightings, thats kinds Wildlife Management 101 there but just think about it.
Posted by: Jonny | September 18, 2008 at 06:38 PM
I have baited, and believe it works well. However, it will be a cold day in hail when i'm willing to sacrifice our deer herd for the simple right to bait. I think it's a bunch of bull sheet to bring the economy in as an excuse to bait. People will actually have to become hunters and buy a good pair of boots, put a little more time in the woods to get a deer. There, thats my idea of an economy stimulus.
Posted by: as moeggs | September 18, 2008 at 07:29 PM
I completly stand with the STATE and DNR director Rebecca Humphries on their decision to ban baiting in Michigan. This is a highly contaigious disease and needs extreme measures to combat it. Personaly I feel that food plots should also be banned. Common sense (thats the sense that most people don't have) opens the eyes to the FACT!! that food plots are absolutly the same thing only on a much larger scale as bait piles. The only reason people plant them is to attract deer,RIGHT? DUH!! If your attracting deer to a certain location no matter how large, on purpose, what are you doing?? BAITING DEER BUBBA!!! There are those who will argue the opposite of this till hell freezes over but the end is still the same. You don't harvest the crop for sale, your not a certified farmer,you are a baiter who is doing their best to help spread this disease throught Michigan. Thanks Bubba. Ted Nuget says its okay to bait. Ted isn't even a full time citizen of Michigan. He owns at least two high fence operations (Where this all started) and really dosen't care about us as much as he cares about Ted this is painfully obivious.Spirit of the wind my AXE! Ban baiting completly, EXTERMINATE high fence operations and their stock in Michigan and for GODS SAKE!!!! do everything we can to save our natural herd!
Posted by: Walt Smith | September 18, 2008 at 07:37 PM
there is NO,NO CWD IN FREE RANGE DEER,THAT WE KNOW OF AT THIS POINT IN MI. ONLY IN ONE FENCED FARM.
(ONE)
THE BAN MAKES NO SENCE AT ALL,I DO NOT TRUST THE DNR,NEVER HAVE AND NEVER WILL.
DON
Posted by: don mitchell | September 18, 2008 at 08:47 PM
Don,
you speak the truth.
Rebecca Humphries is bad for the Michigan deer herd.
Jonny and Walt need to think outside the box-- They have been brain washed into thinking the way they do.
I wish there was a government program that would help them realize there shotcommings.
Posted by: cb | September 18, 2008 at 09:03 PM
You sound like a fella who is only worried about his way of hunting and not generations of hunters who might never experience hunting whitetails the way we have. is baiting worth it sugar beeter?
Posted by: Walt Smith | September 18, 2008 at 09:54 PM
Brainwashed into thinking CWD is a bad disease for a herd to have? Or that baiting is for people that don't want to put his or her time in? I could care less if you trust the DNR or not, but I gurantee you on their worst day they know five hundred times as much about the MI deer herd and CWD that you do. If you go to school and get a masters degree in wildlife management (usually what it takes to get a wildlife job) then you can come and enlighten all of us on how CWD in one fenced in area is not that big of deal, just like it wasn't a big deal in CO in a fenced area, which still can't get rid of the disease in their elk. just for your ingnorant sake, i hope all the deer on ONLY your property get CWD and die, of course then you would blame the DNR for not doing enough,
Posted by: Jonny | September 18, 2008 at 09:57 PM
Jonny,
were you brest feed as a kid ?
Posted by: cb | September 18, 2008 at 10:29 PM
Do some research cb get your head out of the sand and Whiskey Foxtrot Tango does being breast fed as a kid have to do with it??
Posted by: Jonny | September 18, 2008 at 10:34 PM
If the moon phase was not in line and the milk was bad -- it might explane your beligerance on the subject.
Ted Nugent said it best "Where have we seen this before.
Posted by: cb | September 18, 2008 at 10:40 PM
Oh really, so you have had some classes in wildlife diseases? or management? Or you just know because you have baited deer for years?? I guess ignorance is bliss
Posted by: Jonny | September 18, 2008 at 10:44 PM
Jonny,
If they take our guns away then only the gangs will have guns ?
If they take the baiting away then only the poachers will bait ?
DO NOT TELL ME WHAT TO DO.
DO NOT TELL ME WHEN TO DO IT.
DO NOT TELL ME HOW TO DO IT.
I WILL DECIDE WHAT IS BEST FOR MYSELF,MY FAMILY, MY LAND.
P.S -- ( Bait or No Bait )
Posted by: cb | September 18, 2008 at 11:02 PM
Why all the ridiculous banter about baiting and your so-called manhood just because you hunt a certain way. CWD "is" a serious problem, but to ban a hunting practice because of "one" deer in one enclosed deer farm is goofy. That is "not" over reacting? CWD has been around for a long time and primarily out west whether there is baiting or not. It is a natural phenomenon when you have over population or heavy concentrations of deer, elk, or whatever. The comment about getting a degree and knowing more than common folks has nothing to do with the problem. The educated wildlife biologists are not in charge. The Michigan DNR is run by bureaucrats not biologists. The Michigan DNR Commission runs on a different agenda. I don't hunt over bait but can see it being used by elderly or very young hunters. I can also see it being used by anyone. or choosing to hunt without it. It is just another method. To say it is wrong is akin to saying that using improved weapons is wrong too. Let each man, woman, or yougster choose what ever leagal method works for them. It is far more important that we encourage people to continue to hunt and to encourage young people to join our sport. Everyone complaining about the othere guys methods is like the crap we listen to every day from Obama and McCain.....criticism without any solutions or encouragement.
Posted by: Ken Pekarek Sr. | September 18, 2008 at 11:13 PM
first of all you can't compare gun control to baiting, second, with your philosophy, if shooting deer out of the window was legal, then deamed illegal, you would right, only poachers would shoot deer out windows. Get a clue I ain't telling you what to do, but i hope the MI DNR makes you a poacher because apparently no one can tell you what to do
Posted by: Jonny | September 18, 2008 at 11:22 PM
Jonny,
It's official.
You are a Democrat and have some PETA blood in you.
Posted by: cb | September 18, 2008 at 11:29 PM