Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting End of the Venison Donation program ?

granted i only shoot for meat for my family but in the average year if i wanted, without trying very hard and putting in for the sure bets i could harvest atleast 7 deer, 1 elk, 2 pronghorn and a black bear.......thats just me, my wife could take the same, as could my daughters when they get to hunt..........ive never attempted it cause i tend to butcher my own animals and i only care to do so much butchering a year

What a crock, and what a waste of venison. I would gladly eat it.
It has got to be safer than all the hormones and steroids in commercial meat.

Around here, they won't take venison unless it is commercailly processed, even for nonhuman consumption. What A crock, what goes into my freezer is a heck of a lot cleaner than most of the processors.
I couldn't even begin to count the number of pheasants and rabbits I ate hwhile inmy teens taht were killed with #6 shot. I'm sure alot of it passed through my system

If it were a problem, seems like thousands would be getting treated for lead poisoning. How many die each year from e coli and beef? I'll take my chances. One doctor does one test and we waste hundreds of thousands of pounds of venison.

Happy to feed my family the meat that we process each year. I'll gladly take my chances.

The enviro wacko greenies will jump on this. Just another nail in the coffin for hunting via lead. Screw the donation! If you don't eat it yourself or have a friend who wants it, don't shoot it! Wild game meat is much safer than store bought stuff.
At least the venison I eat isn't bruised by a forklift operator!

Sounds like wanton waste to me!

Response to the poster asking why all the venison to food shelves:
The states have set up goals in some parts of the state to reduce the deer herd by taking multiple does. They have found that the the average hunter doesn't want more than a couple of deer in their freezer. So, to encourage the hunter to take more does than he will eat, they have set up programs to allow the hunter to donate the unwanted deer to a participating butcher who will then process the venison and send it to food shelves and the bill to the state. To have proper controls on where the meat comes from only approved processors in the program may send the meat to food shelves. (no home butchering allowed).

As mentioned in the opening posting, Wisconsin has had this program going for years but it is new here in Minnesota. Just last year they set up a $1 fee tacked onto the license price to fund the program. Before that, the hunter had to pay the processing fee to have meat sent to a food shelf. I don't know how long NoDak has been doing it.

Wayne

Man, I gotta move. At the best I can get my general season tag plus one antlerless tag. The unit where I do most of my hunting, the Alsea unit, I can only draw the extra tag about every four years. We have over the counter elk tags but the success rate hovers around 18% so its not like your gonna get one every year. And it takes about ten years to draw a good antelope tag. Twelve to fifteen years for a really good tag.

You have my envy.

Interesting. Hey drift, they are laying the smack down on the deer in my area really hard. basically, there are no rules other than get out there & kill deer. You can shoot what ever you want, day or night, spotlight, anything goes.

Crazy huh? can't immagine dressing out a fat doe right now with a pair of babies in her...

What the heck is this going to do to my deer hunting for the next 10 years? I immagine they are going to keep it up for 3 years or so.

man, grim futures.. grim.

yeah, im not sure of anyone who has done it though......we have only taken about 4 animals in a season max so far, though the high school principal and his son did a hell of a year as it was his sons first year, both took an elk, a pronghorn, a buck and i think one of them got a doe.....they ran out of freezer space and donated a bunch to the local place that feeds those less fortunate, all cut, wrapped and pre-froze.....as i said there is only so much butchering i care to do the number of critters i shoot a year is generally directly linked to how many nights i want to sped cutting up critters.....but the number will prolly go up some this year due to the oldest girl hunting.....the reason the deer number is so high is due to not many ppl shooting does.....of that 7 possible tags only one is a "buck" tag...the rest are does. the antelope tags is for a buck and for a doe/fawn. the F&G department much prefer hunters managing big game to them so they tend to be happy to give yah all the doe tags you desire to purchase in over populated regions......

Lots of misinformation slipping in here. Its always good to go right to the source:


http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/deer/donation/index.html

Donating hunter-harvested deer in Minnesota
Donate venison to a local food shelf! List of participating venison processors.
News Release (October 31st, 2007)
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, has a program that allows Minnesota deer hunters to donate deer carcasses to food shelves and feeding programs. This program provides an excellent source of protein to people in need while helping reduce local deer populations.


Lou Cornicelli, DNR big game program coordinator
Audio only mp3 162K, 25 seconds
Small video wmv 687 K
Large video wmv 4,222 K
To participate
Hunters must have their deer processed at a Minnesota Department of Agriculture-registered meat processing plant who has agreed to participate in the program. A list of processors can be found here, www.mda.state.mn.us/licensing/meategg/processors.htm. Hunters are strongly advised to contact the processor before bringing in a deer to make sure they are still able to handle the animal.
Only entire carcasses with the hide attached can be donated. Cut and wrapped meat will not be accepted for donation.
Hunters and processors must adhere to specific standards designed to prevent food-borne illness:
Hunters must sign a form indicating their willingness to donate the deer and adhere to the field dressing procedures outlined in the �Guide to donating a hunter-harvested deer� �brochure.
Processors may only accept carcasses for donation that are:
o Free from signs of illness
o Field dressed with the hide intact
o Free of visible decomposition or contamination
o Properly identified with a Minnesota DNR registration tag
o Processors will reject deer for the donation program that appear to have been mishandled in any way.
Funding
In 2007, the Minnesota legislature funded a program that will facilitate the donation of harvested deer to food shelves. To pay for the program, a one-time appropriation of $160,000 came from the general fund and the cost of non-resident hunting licenses was increased by $5. Next year, the cost of the bonus permit will increase by $1, which should bring in approximately $160,000/year. Additionally, at the time of deer license purchase, hunters will be asked if they want to voluntarily donate $1, $3, or $5 to the program and any interested individual can also donate by visiting one of 1,800 ELS agents statewide.
There is no cost to the hunter and processors will be reimbursed $70 for each deer they send to the food shelf. In a nutshell, find out who is taking carcasses. After you kill the deer, ensure you are handling it properly and it�s suitable for donation. Take the deer to the processor, fill out some information and you�re done.
For more information
Minnesota Deer Hunters Association
Betty Wilkens
320-679-1607
800-450-3337 ext 12
wilkensncis.com
Bluffland Whitetails Association
Jack Peck
507-289-3874
Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry
Karl Pixler
763-552-3030
rrtcsherbtel.net

Cooperators
Minnesota Deer Hunters Association: www.mndeerhunters.com
Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry: www.fhfh.org
Sportsmen Against Hunger: www.safariclubfoundation.org
Bluffland Whitetails Association: www.blufflandwhitetails.org
Minnesota Dept. of Agriculture:www.mda.state.mn.us/licensing/meategg/venisondonation.htm
Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources: www.dnr.state.mn.us
University of Minnesota Extension: www.extension.umn.edu

How come folks that live through a shooting and are packing several grains of lead bullet or bullet fragments around inside of their bodies don't roll over dead in 5 minutes? Will we be allowed to conventionally bury them when they finally die, or will they have to go to a special place?

As kids our grade school teacher gave us a pint jar of mecury to play with, and it was really neat! Now if our lab breaks a mercury thermometer with half gram of material inside, we'll have to rope off the building and call in a haz mat team.

I used to sleep with my radium dialed watch on my wrist beneath my head. Ten years ago at work, we got rid of a neutron probe with far less encased material, because the paper work was overwhelming.

We have way to much over reaction now days to really trivial sh-t.

I smell a rat here in the woodpile. There is something wrong and other pacakges from MN or WI should be X-rayed, not CT scanned.
A CT will highlight a lead particle and send out secondary streaks. A normal X-Ray is more appropriate. This comes from my wife who has been in the field for 26 years.
Also, what kind of grinder is being used? Is there a chance that a stray piece of lead is ground up and spread throughout the package?
The results just doesn't square with empirical data.

Sorry if this has already been posted, but it seems that Iowa has checked some packages and deemed their pantry meat to be safe for human consumption.. I'll look for a link if somebody smarter and quicker hasn't already provided it....

Dave,

Yeah the cattle growers are really pushing for the herd to be thinned, they want the TB desigantion dropped no matter what and no matter what it takes.

Can't say as I blame them I really think the herd up there will be taken out asap. The sad thing is I do not know if they are shooting and dumping or processing.

It is getting close to home for us to if the spread is not controlled our zone is next.

I think the herd in your area will come back quicker then you think. Personally I can't shoot a doe full of fawns I would never be allowed back in the house.

bd

it's a touchy subject. this lead business throws another level of dificulty into the picture. I'm thinking most of the locals that are participating in the open season anything goes, kill em all program are taking the meat for there own use. But I'm not sure about the sharp shooters, I suppose they probably have to at least take the heads or some part of the animal for testing but i think we are probably just feeding a lot of wolves, coyote, crows, eagles etc......

Boys, I have found buckshot, arrow points and birdshot in deer I have processed. Grind it all up and I could accept the fact that lead is in the donated meat. Heck, I found a 22LR slug in the rump of a sheep I killed in the Chugach Range a few years ago. Slob shooters are a fact of life, and the sad truth I would rather not admit. How do we fix that? Bill

yeah I've found a broken off arrow & broadhead in the neck of a doe I took with black powder.

this has just got to be a processing issue. I don't cut or grind any of that bloodshot junk.

it's too bad, what a waste & what a good program it was.

Dave the MDHA and the NSSF are really cranking pressure on the DNR to keep it going.

I would really be surprised if the program goes away at this point. Again this Dr. jumped on the California bandwagon to ban lead bullets to protect the condors that are eating gutpiles.

I think he went to this extreme to really push his own agenda on protecting the raptors.

As far as deer hunting goes up there if the numbers get thin drop me a line. We are pretty close to you and you'll be more then welcome to chase timber goats with us.

I'm not getting too worked up about it drift. sure appreciate the offer tho.

I've seen bad years before, but I always had fun anyways. Gotta take the good with the bad, can't all be good right? doesn't hurt the up & coming hunters to experience a string of tough years either. That's what it's always been about for me. it aint always easy, if it was.... well, we could hardly call it hunting could we?

I can see the whole lead scare putting a lid on donation programs for liability reasons but I can't see it intruding on our traditional ways of taking deer for our own use.

I mean, it isn't like this discovery of micro lead flecks in donated ground meat suddenly explains why avid hunters have been dieing of lead related illnesses for hundreds of years

This things got a bit of the chicken little syndrom to it right now. I think we're going to be ok on the lead issue & there aint nothing I can do about the TB issue, just gotta roll with it I guess.

Heres a link to the Iowa study. Seems to be a more trustworthy source than the origional post story.

http://www.iowadnr.gov/news/08apr/lead.html