Thursday, August 20, 2015

TEXAS CAPTIVE Deer Industry, Pens, Breeding, Big Business, Invites Crooks and CWD

a review of sorts ;


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News Release Media Contact: Steve Lightfoot, 512-389-4701, steve.lightfoot@tpwd.texas.gov

 

Oct. 21, 2014

 

Pair Convicted in Illegal Deer Breeding Operation

 

AUSTIN – The latest chapter in a decade long series of criminal and wildlife disease investigations involving a former South Texas deer breeder ended recently when a Corpus Christi area couple pleaded guilty to 50 charges of Unlawful Possession and/or Sale of Live Game Animals.

 

Frank Thomas Shumate Jr., 51, and Kalub Rogers Shumate, 31, were each assessed $14,127.50 in fines and agreed to surrender the ability to apply for a deer breeder permit or a hunting lease license for all time. Mr. Shumate also agreed to surrender his hunting license through the end of the 2015 license year and Ms. Shumate through the end of the 2017 license year.

 

The criminal cases were adjudicated in the office of Hon. Caroline Korzekwa, Karnes County Justice Court Precinct. 2.

 

Retired San Antonio attorney Rene Barrientos served as special prosecutor in the case with approval and support from the Karnes County Attorney. He also coordinated a global agreement in Travis County District Court to resolve a pending civil case against Ms. Rogers and recover $34,080 in restitution related to expenses incurred by TPWD staff while conducting a deer herd inventory inspection and disease sampling at a deer breeding facility permitted to Ms. Rogers.

 

Investigation into Mr. Shumate’s deer breeding activities began in March 2004 and led to multiple charges in three counties. Two years later, his deer breeder violations resulted in 10 convictions on criminal charges in Jim Wells County, 5 convictions in Nueces County and 5 convictions in Webb County. As a result of these findings, Mr. Shumate agreed to relinquish his Scientific Breeder’s Permit and liquidate all deer held in captivity in his deer breeding facility in Nueces County.

 

In advance of losing his deer breeding privileges, Mr. Shumate allegedly initiated a plan to have a new deer breeding facility permitted in the name of Kalub Rogers on his property in Karnes County, where he then transferred more than 100 deer from his Nueces County facility.

 

Over time the TPWD Special Operations Unit received numerous reports that Mr. Shumate was reportedly still in the deer business and was buying and selling deer for which he was not legally authorized by TPWD. An investigation revealed that Mr. Shumate conducted sales of at least 78 white-tailed deer from Ms. Rogers’ deer breeding facility to ranches for release into the wild for stocking purposes since September 2010. Mr. Shumate received a minimum of $171,466 in payments for white-tailed deer he unlawfully sold, which according to records submitted to TPWD, were transported from Ms. Rogers’ deer breeding facility. The investigation further indicated that Kalub Rogers was holding a deer breeder permit in her name on behalf of her husband Frank Thomas Shumate Jr.

 

Ms. Rogers’ facility came under additional scrutiny in 2012, initially as a result of a delinquent annual report required of all permitted deer breeding facilities. Criminal charges were filed when a subsequent herd inspection and inventory revealed significant irregularities and discrepancies, including 162 inventoried deer that were missing from the facility. During the herd inspection, TPWD wildlife biologists noted the remaining deer in the facility to be in poor condition and numerous decayed deer carcasses were observed throughout the pens.

 

The observation of 142 deer of unknown origin was cause for additional concern and tissue samples from several deer were tested for both Chronic Wasting Disease and Bovine Tuberculosis. Neither disease was detected.

 

“Unscrupulous actions by these two individuals are not only a threat to all the law-abiding deer breeders who are carefully monitoring and managing their facilities, but also to the state’s free-ranging deer, which can be exposed to unnecessary disease risk from these illegitimate activities,” said Mitch Lockwood, TPWD Big Game Program Director. “Captive and free-ranging deer are too important to our state to have them compromised by the actions of a few.”

 




===========================

 

TEXAS Deer Breeding: Big Business Invites Crooks

 

By: Jacob Edson, D&DH managing editor | February 9, 2012

 

Texas Deer Breeding - whitetail hunting - white-tailed deerIt’s no secret that white-tailed deer breeding is big business, especially in the Lone Star state. And wherever big money is involved, greed and illegal activity seem to follow. See for example, this story by Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times about a Texas deer breeder who chose to ignore importation laws to smuggle his six-figure deer herd into the state.

 

Even more alarming is the suggestion in the third to last paragraph that many more breeders might be putting profits above the regulations that protect the safety of Texas’ wild whitetails.

 

NEW SUMMERFIELD, Texas — Texas’ hunting season for white-tailed deer has now ended. Normally, Billy Powell would be counting his profit from catering to “hornographers,” hunters who will pay as much as $100,000 to bag a monster buck with impressive headgear.

 

Instead, the 78-year-old deer breeder is under house arrest and wearing an ankle monitor.

 

Meanwhile, hundreds of his deer, part of a herd that had included two big bucks named Hit Man and Barry, have been put down in a scandal that has rocked Texas’ $2.8 billion deer-hunting and -breeding industry, the largest in the nation.

 

Powell is one of 1,236 registered Texas breeders. Some have paid up to $1 million for first-rate bucks they mate with captive does. Their progeny, 103,155 registered this year, are raised in pens and released on high-fenced ranches for hunting.

 

But Hit Man and Barry were smuggled into Texas from Northern states where two deer diseases are found.

 

After a four-year federal investigation, Powell paid $1.5 million in fines and restitution and pleaded guilty to charges of smuggling more than three dozen white-tailed deer worth more than $800,000 from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

 

Mitch Lockwood, big-game director for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said Powell put the state’s 4 million wild deer “and the entire Texas deer-breeding industry at risk.”

 

Powell and other breeders say regulators have become overzealous, out for hefty fines that become their agency’s cut of the burgeoning deer-farming business.

 

“Parks and Wildlife don’t like deer breeders, and they’ll do anything to get you,” Powell said. “ I did wrong, but they did more wrong.”

 

Hunters rate trophy bucks according to a scoring system developed by Theodore Roosevelt’s Boone and Crockett Club in 1887. The score includes antler length and circumference, with the best Texas white-tails traditionally scoring 150 to 160.

 

Today, thanks to breeding, mammoth deerzillas are scoring 200 or more.

 

Texas outlawed importing out-of-state deer to prevent the introduction of bovine tuberculosis and chronic wasting disease, a neurological disorder similar to mad cow disease.

 

Still, some breeders have ignored the ban.

 

Barry was among the bucks Powell had smuggled from Pennsylvania, where he was known as Fat Boy. Hit Man was actually Silver Storm, from Indiana.

 

Barry and Hit Man died of natural causes before authorities brought charges against Powell last year, but they helped establish the government’s case. Powell pleaded guilty in June to smuggling 37 deer. -

 



 

Man admits to snatching “Diablo” the Texas buck’s semen. (updated)

 

Posted on July 12, 2012 | By Dane Schiller

 

A breeding deer not related to the investigation. James Nielson/ Houston Chronicle)

 

Court papers made public Friday offer more details in the case of an an Illinois man pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining deer semen from a Texas buck named “Diablo.”

 

Raymond Favero, 55, specifically pleaded guilty to the charge of acquisition of wild life in interstate commerce in violation of state law before U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith K. Guthrie.

 

Court papers state that in February 2007, Favero acquired 184 straws of whitetail deer semen valued at about $92,000 from a buck named “Diablo'” that he knew had been illegally taken out of Texas, and again in January 2008 took another 110 straws of semen from a buck named “Thunderstruck.” (Read more in the court paper posted at the bottom of this entry.)

 

He faces up to five years in prison at sentencing, according to a the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.

 

If an agreement with prosecutors is accepted by a judge, he will serve 5 years of probation and pay a fine of $150,000 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Lacey Act Reward Account, and another $50,000 in community restitution to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.

 

The case was investigated by the Special Operations Unit of the Texas Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Noble.

 

UPDATE: This case looks like it is related to the one involving Billy Powell, a Cherokee County deer breeder who agreed in 2011 to pay a $1.5 million fine as part of pleading guilty to illegally transporting wildlife. See the charges against Powell in the document posted below. His plea agreement, however, remains sealed.

 

(This does not have any apparent ties to the world of narcotics trafficking, but was too unusual to pass up posting in this blog.)

 

Shannon Tompkins, our resident deer expert, shared some wisdom with me on this matter. Here is what he had to say:

 

The reason the feds and the state take this so seriously is that unregulated movement of deer and other cervids (elk, sika deer, etc.) can and has spread incredibly destructive, virulent, communicable diseases such as Chronic Wasting Disease – the deer version of Mad Cow.

 

The prions that cause CWD are found in deer body fluids. The disease can take as much as five years to manifest, during which time the infected deer can infect others or “shed” prions that remain viable for, some research indicates, 15 years or more. There is no live test for the disease. You have to kill a deer and test its brain stem.

 

This is serious stuff. Not only is an incredible natural resource at risk – CWD rather easily spreads from penned deer into the wild population – but it also threatens recreational deer hunting which is hugely important economically ($2.5 billion or so a year in direct economic impact to Texas from recreational hunting) and socially. Plus, deer are the reason many landowners manage, maintain and improve the environmental quality of their land. Lose the deer, lose incentive to maintain wild places.

 

Texas has prohibited importing live deer into the state for a decade or so. State and federal officers are constantly working cases of illegal import of deer or other criminal violations of deer-related laws. Many of them are felonies – especially the ones involving violations of the federal Lacey Act.

 


 

June 15, 2011

 

Cherokee County Deer Breeder Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Deer

 

Prominent breeder Agreed to Pay $1.5 million for Smuggling Deer into East Texas

 

TYLER – After a lengthy four year investigation a 77-year-old Cherokee County, Texas licensed deer breeder has pleaded guilty to illegally transporting wildlife in the Eastern District of Texas and then lying about it to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent, announced U.S. Attorney John M. Bales today.

 

Billy Powell pleaded guilty on June 14, 2011, to the felony offense of smuggling at least 37 whitetail deer, over a 3 year time span, from Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio into Texas in violation of state and federal laws. Powell also admitted that he made a false statement and submitted a false document to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife special agent who was looking into the matter. Powell has agreed to pay a $1 million fine, to be deposited into the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Lacy Act Reward Fund, as well as $500,000.00 in restitution to Texas Parks and Wildlife, on his sentencing date. Powell’s agreement with the government calls for Powell to serve 3 years probation with six months of home confinement which will be monitored with an electric anklet. During the term of probation, Powell will be prohibited from participating in any manner in commercial deer breeding. Additionally, Powell must forfeit any illegally imported deer, any progeny of those deer, and any biological material derived from said deer, which would include any semen, antlers, mounts, and cloned deer. Powell has already forfeited over 1,300 straws of frozen semen valued at approximately $961,500.00 to U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

 

According to information presented in court, on at least four separate occasions, spanning from October 2006 through June 2008, Powell knowingly imported at least 37 live whitetail deer, many of whom came from captive deer farms in Ligonier, Indiana, into the state of Texas and to his “5-P Farms”, high fenced deer breeding facility in Cherokee County Texas. These deer included bucks known as “Fat Boy” aka “Barry”, “Silver Storm” aka “Hit Man”, “Y 009", “Eagle Storm” aka “BJ”, “Thunderstruck”, “High Five”, and “Primer” aka “Spikes”. At all times Powell knew that Texas law prohibited any person from possessing a deer acquired from an out-of-state source. In spite of this, Powell agreed to participate in the above-described transactions in which whitetail deer would be secretly transported from Illinois, Indiana, and/or Pennsylvania, to Texas in order to evade Texas laws and regulations.

 

Powell acknowledged that the fair market value of all of the illegally imported, whitetail deer exceeded approximately $800,000.00, that the value of the illegally accumulated white-tailed deer semen exceeded approximately $961,000.00, and that the value of the progeny exceeded approximately $290,000.00.

 

Powell further admitted that he lied to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Special Agent during a voluntary statement at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tyler, Texas. Powell told the agent that he had illegally imported approximately 35 white-tailed deer into the state of Texas when in fact he knew that he had illegally imported no less than 41 white-tailed deer, including 6 white-tail deer fawns. During the same statement, Powell also submitted lists identifying 35 white-tailed deer as the total number of white-tailed deer that he had illegally imported into the state of Texas when he knew that he had actually illegally imported no less than 41 white-tailed, including 6 white-tail deer fawns.

 

Findings of the investigation also prompted the Wildlife Division of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to conduct an epidemiological investigation in consultation with veterinarians and wildlife disease experts from Texas Animal Health Commission, Texas Department of State Health Services, and Texas ­A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and accredited veterinarians actively involved in the deer breeding industry. This process was carried out in three separate phases. Ultimately all 334 deer contained in Powell’s deer breeding facility were euthanized to facilitate testing for chronic wasting disease (CWD) and bovine tuberculosis (TB). This process was necessary in order to provide an acceptable level of assurance that neither disease was prevalent in Powell’s deer breeding facility nor in any deer breeding facility that had received deer from Powell’s facility since October 2004.

 

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has had an intensive CWD surveillance program since 2002, and this disease has yet to be detected in Texas. Likewise, bovine tuberculosis has not been detected in any Texas deer population. However, illegal entry of white-tailed deer from other states poses a serious risk of introducing these diseases and others into Texas. Introduction of these diseases into Texas could have a detrimental impact on the longtime cultural tradition of deer hunting, which generates an estimated $1.2 billion in retail sales and has a total economic output of more than $2 billion in Texas each year. Disease monitoring is also necessary to protect legal deer breeding activity from risk of disease exposure. Furthermore, bovine tuberculosis could have a significant impact on the Texas livestock industry. Prevention is the most effective tool to combat diseases because once established in wild populations, these diseases are extremely difficult, if not impossible to eradicate.

 

Since no live-animal test for CWD exists, TPWD consulted with trained experts to ensure the most humane euthanasia method and treatment of the animals was used. Texas Parks and Wildlife officials are presently awaiting the test results for the tissue samples submitted to the Texas Veterinarian Medical Diagnostic Laboratory located in College Station, TX

 

This case was investigated by the Special Operations Unit of the Texas Parks and Wildlife and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Noble.

 


 

Texas deer breeder sentenced for smuggling

 

Aug. 18, 2010 at 3:18 a.m.

 

TYLER, Texas (AP) - A licensed deer breeder from Austin must serve three years of probation for illegally transporting wildlife in east Texas.

 

U.S. Attorney John Bales says 41-year-old Lance Clawson was sentenced Wednesday in Tyler.

 

Clawson on April 14 pleaded guilty to smuggling whitetail deer from Oklahoma into Texas. He also was fined $15,000 and must pay $7,250 in restitution to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.

 

Investigators say Clawson, who operates a ranch and deer breeding facility near Goldthwaite, traveled to Muskogee, Okla., on Oct. 15, 2008, to buy fawns from a breeder.

 

Clawson's vehicle was stopped the following day by Texas game wardens as he returned with eight fawns.

 

Texas law bans importing live whitetail or mule deer due to the threat of transmittable diseases.

 


 

News Release Media Contact: Mike Cox, 512-389-8046, mike.cox@tpwd.texas.gov

 

Feb. 5, 2010

 

Texas Men Sentenced to Federal Prison for Deer Trafficking, Stolen Property

 

AUSTIN — A four-year, multi-agency investigation that began when two Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Game Wardens received information about possible stolen property on two Northeast Texas ranches has ended with federal prison sentences for a father and son who pled guilty to transporting stolen property and wildlife trafficking.

 

Forty-nine-year-old James Dwayne Anderton and his 26-year-old son Jimmie Wallace Anderton, both of Quinlan in Hunt County, Texas were sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Sherman by Judge Marcia Crone.

 

"This case is an excellent example of a joint effort on the part of local, state and federal law enforcement," said Col. Pete Flores, TPWD’s law enforcement director. "We’re proud of the work our Game Wardens put in on this case, but everyone involved did a great job in pursuing a complicated investigation that not only resulted in the recovery of thousands of dollars worth of stolen property, it will help keep our Texas deer herd safe from disease by ending an illegal importation operation."

 

The elder Anderton drew 30 months in federal prison for interstate transportation of stolen property and was ordered to pay $180,952 restitution. His son will serve 27 months in federal prison for interstate transportation and will be jointly responsible for making restitution. In addition, both men got 12 months federal confinement for violations of the Federal Lacey Act involving the illegal transportation of deer across state lines. These sentences will be served concurrently with their other sentence, but they also face 36 months of supervised release following their discharge from prison.

 

Benjamin Tuggle, Regional Director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, agrees with Col. Flores, adding, "We appreciate these kinds of collaborative efforts. It is all about wildlife conservation and to be successful we need to work together. All of the law enforcement agents working on this case are to be commended for their dedication and hard work."

 

The Andertons operate a turf grass and landscaping business and hold a TPWD permit to breed captive deer. In the spring of 2006 Game Wardens Dale Waters and Eric Collins were looking into some possible deer breeding violations when they received information that the Andertons might be in possession of stolen heavy equipment and trailers.

 

The wardens relayed this information to Texas Department of Public Safety Motor Vehicle Theft Division Sgts. John Murphy and Rex Wilemon, who drew up a search warrant executed on two pieces of land owned by the Andertons, one in Delta County and the other in Hunt County near Quinlan. Six Game Wardens and Sgt. Brad Chappell of the TPWD Special Operations Unit participated in the search, which resulted in the recovery of stolen farm machinery and construction equipment. Deputies with the Delta and Hunt county sheriff’s departments and members of the Northeast Texas Auto Theft Task Force also assisted in the search.

 

The two DPS investigators presented the findings from their stolen equipment investigation to FBI Special Agent Ken Paith who furthered the investigation and developed sufficient evidence to indict the Andertons on July 8, 2009 for interstate transportation of stolen property. Also indicted on the same charge was Timothy Shane Peavler, 37, of Lone Oak, Texas.

 

During this time Chappell received information that the Andertons had been unlawfully importing white-tailed deer from Arkansas. The Game Warden sergeant contacted U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent Mike Merida and began a joint investigation along with Little Rock-based Fish and Wildlife Special Agent Glen Pye and investigators with Arkansas Fish and Game Commission.

 

This cooperative effort eventually revealed the source of the deer the Andertons were illegally importing. Merida and Chappell determined the Andertons had paid more than $63,000 for at least 125 white-tailed deer and imported them to Texas in violation of a state statute which restricts deer importation.

 

The two officers eventually learned that the Andertons had hired people to travel to a deer breeder’s facility in northern Arkansas, load deer and return to Texas where they delivered the illegal cargo to both the Anderton’s properties.

 

Peavler pled guilty on July 27 last year to interstate transportation of stolen property and was sentenced to six months in federal prison and ordered to pay $42,403 restitution. The Andertons pled guilty Aug. 31.

 

"TPWD began limiting importation of live white-tailed deer and mule deer into Texas in the spring of 2002 due to concerns over potential spread of two diseases that could be devastating to our deer population, chronic wasting disease (CWD) and bovine tuberculosis," Flores said. "We have worked hard to prevent CWD from being introduced into Texas and so far our state has remained CWD free."

 

Assistant United States Attorney Randall Blake prosecuted the case.

 


 

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas No. 3:13-CV-01641

 

JAMES ANDERTON; JIMMIE ANDERTON,

 

Plaintiffs – Appellants

 

v.

 

TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT; TEXAS ANIMAL HEALTH COMMISSION; CARTER SMITH, Executive Director, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department; CRAIG HUNTER, Director, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department; L. DAVID SINCLAIR, Chief Game Warden, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department; MITCH LOCKWOOD, Big Game Warden, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department; DALE WATERS, Game Warden, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department; GARY COLLINS, Game Warden, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department; BRAD CHAPPELL, Investigator, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department; AMBER ANDEL, Deer Breeders Program, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Defendants – Appellees

 

SNIP...

 

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

 

From 2000 until 2010, the Andertons possessed a current permit issued by the Department that authorized them to breed deer. Their breeding ranch was located east of Dallas in Quinlan, Texas. In 2010, 2011, and 2012, the Andertons submitted applications for renewal of the permit. The Department denied those applications without explanation.

 

It has been alleged in this litigation that the Andertons’s permit was not renewed because they had illegally imported deer from another state. The Andertons had pled guilty, as shown in a federal court judgment of February 2, 2010, to the offense of conspiring to transport wildlife in interstate commerce in violation of Texas law. The Andertons were charged under the general federal conspiracy statute, 18 U.S.C. § 371. The substantive federal statutes setting forth the offense were 16 U.S.C. §§ 3372(a)(2)(A) and 3373(d)(2). Those are sections of what is called the Lacey Act. 16 U.S.C. §§ 3371-3378. The Texas laws they were charged in an information with violating were 31 Texas Administration Code Sections 65.609(b)(2), 65.611(h), and 65.611(i). The Department may refuse permit issuance or renewal to any person convicted of a violation of the Lacey Act. 31 TEX. ADMIN. CODE § 65.603(g)(2) (2010).

 

As mentioned above, the Andertons deer-breeding permit was not renewed in 2010. Such a permit is valid from the date of issuance until the immediately following July 1. 31 TEX. ADMIN. CODE 65.603(c). Apparently, then, as of July 1, 2010, four months after their February convictions, they no longer had a current permit to maintain breeder deer. On December 6, 2010,

 

2

 

Case: 14-10297 Document: 00512982550 Page: 2 Date Filed: 03/26/2015

 

No. 14-10297

 

and May 1, 2011, Department officials entered and shot breeder deer on the Andertons’ land. The Andertons allege the officials killed the deer in front of their family and several witnesses. In April 2013, the Andertons brought suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas against the Texas Animal Health Commission and the Department for violations of the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments, and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”). They also sued several Department officials in their official and individual capacities under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and RICO. Additionally, they brought claims for injunctive and declaratory relief against all parties. The district court dismissed the Andertons’ Section 1983 and RICO claims against the officials in their individual capacities under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), and dismissed the remaining claims under Rule 12(b)(1). The Andertons appealed.

 

DISCUSSION

 

SNIP...

 

The Andertons argue that the breeder-deer industry is not a closely regulated industry.

 

SNIP...

 

The Andertons argue the killing of the deer “shocks the conscience.” Even if there were a protected property interest in the deer – an issue we will analyze in the next section on procedural rights – Department officials were acting pursuant to state law, not violating it. The Andertons failed to allege facts that established the conduct of the officials was intended to injure them unjustifiably. The district court stated that though the allegations “may raise questions related to the most humane ways to kill deer, [they] do not plausibly establish that the officials’ conduct was so egregious, so outrageous, that it may fairly be said to shock the contemporary conscience.”

 

The Andertons have failed to demonstrate a violation of substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.

 

SNIP...

 

Under Texas law, though, breeder deer belong to the state, not the permittee. See, e.g., TEX. PARKS & WILD. CODE §§ 1.011 (“All wild animals . . . inside the borders of this state are the property of the people of this state.”); 43.364 (“All breeder deer . . . are under the full force of the laws of [Texas] pertaining to deer . . . .”). While a permittee may have possession of the breeder deer, the deer are only “held under a permit[.]” Id. § 43.351. Nowhere do the statutes or regulations state that breeder deer become the property of a permit holder.4 Regardless, even if they did give ownership of breeder deer to permit holders, the Andertons were not permit holders when the deer were killed.

 


 

While a permittee may have possession of the breeder deer, the deer are only “held under a permit[.]” Id. § 43.351

 


 

S.B. No. 820

 


 


 

Texas Senate Bill

 

Relating to the management, breeding, and destruction of deer and to procedures regarding certain deer permits.

 

View latest bill text Session:83rd Legislature (2013)

 


 

 SHOCKING ONES CONSCIENCE VIDEO

 

 *** Danger of Canned Hunting Indiana Wildlife VIDEO ***

 


 

 Deer Smugglers Go to Prison

 

 A Texas man and a Minnesota man have been sent to prison for transporting wild deer across state lines. You may not have known that is illegal, but it is, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department takes it very seriously, as Jim Bell reports.

 

 By: Jim Bell, December 29th, 2008 08:21 PM

 

 00:00 00:00

 

 Everyone knows it's legal to hunt wild deer in Texas under controlled and licensed conditions. It's also legal for people to get a license to breed deer on private property and use them for private hunts. What's not legal is for the deer breeders to bring deer in from other states. Greg Williford is in the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's Special Operations Unit, and he says deer from other states could bring a very serious animal disease into the state. It's called Chronic Wasting Disease.

 

 "Similar to Mad Cow Disease but it affects deer and elk. It's been found in Wisconsin and I believe Colorado had it in their elk population at one point.ξ It completely decimates the native deer population."

 

 Deer hunting is a huge industry in Texas. Add up the money hunters spend year round on hunting rifles, hunting and camping clothing and equipment, deer leases, everything related to traveling to hunting areas, hotels, motels, campgrounds, and you're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. A sick deer from another state could start an epizootic that could spread and kill thousands of deer, and do serious damage to the state's hunting economy.ξ

 

 What were those two men doing that got them in so much trouble?ξ Williford says it started when Robert Eichenour of Houston bought mature trophy bucks with big racks from a rogue breeder named Brian Becker in Minnesota.

 

 "Mr. Eichenour was able to buy them from Mr. Becker in Minnesota for approximately 1500 dollars a buck.ξ Mr. Becker would bring the animals down, they'd be placed on Mr. Eichenour's ranch in Grimes County and then he would sell the hunt for this animal for anywhere between five and ten thousand dollars."ξ

 

 And that's per hunter. Over a four year period, Eichenour smuggled up to $300 thousand dollars worth of deer to his ranch for these hunts. The question arises: since he could breed deer legally as a licensed breeder, why did he need to import deer?ξ Williford says:

 

 "It was more economically advantageous for him to import these deer than it was to try to raise these deer. It would take four to five years to raise a deer with antlers of this quality anyway."

 

 Williford says the Texas breeder just didn't want to spend the time and money it takes to raise trophy deer to adulthood. Both men were caught after an undercover investigation by Parks and Wildlife Department Game Wardens, and both were charged with illegally transporting illegally captured animals across state lines, which is a federal crime. Last month, both pleaded guilty and both are headed for a federal prison. Williford says they can blame it on greed.ξ

 

 Jim Bell, KUHF, Houston Public Radio News.

 


 

 Owner of Sandia Deer Breeding Facility Bonded Out of Jail

 

 Posted: May 08, 2014 6:07 PM CDT

 

 Updated: May 16, 2014 6:54 PM CDT

 

 SANDIA (Kiii News) - Fred Rich, the man arrested Wednesday for allowing someone to enter a deer breeding facility and kill a 22-point buck while it was still inside a pen, bonded out of jail on Thursday.

 

 Rich is said to be the owner of the breeding facility at the Lonesome Bull Ranch near Sandia, Texas. That facility is currently being investigated by Texas Parks and Wildlife, and that's how the incident was discovered.

 

 Parks and Wildlife officers are also testing whitetail dear from that ranch for an infectious disease. More than 200 of the deer had to be euthanized to allow for that testing, and the results are expected back in a few weeks. As for Rich, if convicted in aiding the slaughtering of that deer, he could face up to six months in jail.

 

 It's not his first run-in with the law. Rich received time in prison for federal charges that he scammed insurance companies out of thousands of dollars in fraudulent mold claims.

 

 Prosecutors said Rich, who owned a company called Mold Inc., and two other men pled guilty to suing a technique called "cooking houses." It involved wetting down the inside of a home, shutting doors and windows, and then cranking up the heat to create mold.

 

 The alleged incidents happened in Corpus Christi and in Portland between 2000-2002.

 


 

 Geneticist Fined in Texas Deer Semen Case

 

 An Illinois geneticist must pay $30,000 and serve three years of probation for illegally obtaining valuable semen from whitetail deer in East Texas. A federal judge in Tyler sentenced 55-year-old Raymond Favero of Braidwood, Ill. Favero in...

 


 

 if now is not the time to panic, after ignoring cwd for a decade, when should we panic ?

 

 good ol boy system alive and well in the great state of Texas, protect the industry at all cost, including human and animal health.

 

 where is the official announcement of this 4th case (or more cases), by the TAHC and or the TPWD? we’re still waiting.

 

 why is the media having to do the TAHC and or the TPWD job, and reporting this critical information to the public domain?

 

 of course, it took 7+ months and an act of Congress to finally confirm and announce to the public that last mad cow in Texas as well. political science as usual in Texas.

 

 IF the state of Texas does not get serious real fast with CWD, and test all those deer, that 5 year plan is a ticking time bomb waiting to happen.

 

 all cervid tested after slaughter, and test results must be released to the public.

 

 the tse prion aka mad cow type disease is not your normal pathogen.

 

 The TSE prion disease survives ashing to 600 degrees celsius, that’s around 1112 degrees farenheit.

 

 you cannot cook the TSE prion disease out of meat.

 

 you can take the ash and mix it with saline and inject that ash into a mouse, and the mouse will go down with TSE.

 

 Prion Infected Meat-and-Bone Meal Is Still Infectious after Biodiesel Production as well.

 

 the TSE prion agent also survives Simulated Wastewater Treatment Processes.

 

 IN fact, you should also know that the TSE Prion agent will survive in the environment for years, if not decades.

 

 you can bury it and it will not go away.

 

 The TSE agent is capable of infected your water table i.e. Detection of protease-resistant cervid prion protein in water from a CWD-endemic area.

 

 it’s not your ordinary pathogen you can just cook it out and be done with. that’s what’s so worrisome about Iatrogenic mode of transmission, a simple autoclave will not kill this TSE prion agent.

 

 Thursday, August 20, 2015

 

 *** TEXAS TAHC DEER BREEDER CWD PERMIT RULES EMERGENCY ADOPTION PREAMBLE ***

 


 

 TAHC ADOPTS CWD RULE THAT the amendments remove the requirement for a specific fence height for captives

 

 Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC)

 

 ANNOUNCEMENT

 

 October 3, 2013

 

 snip...

 

 Summary Minutes from 387th Commission Meeting – 9/10/2013

 

 18

 

 1) The first change is to the definition of “Physical Herd Inventory” to remove the requirement that all animals in the herd must be restrained in order to have the identification validated by the person performing the inventory verification.

 

 2) The second modification is the fencing requirement found in §40.3(a) which provides that a herd premises must have perimeter fencing of a minimum of eight feet in height and adequate to prevent ingress or egress of cervids. That standard is found in the Uniform Method and Rules for CWD, but under the federal regulations the standard provides merely that the fencing must be adequate to prevent ingress or egress of cervids and the commission is modifying agency requirements to meet that standard by removing the eight foot requirement.

 

 The motion to approve the regulation amendment passed.

 


 

 > The amendments remove the requirement for a specific fence height...

 

 > but under the federal regulations the standard provides merely that the fencing must be adequate to prevent ingress or egress of cervids and the commission is modifying agency requirements to meet that standard by removing the eight foot requirement.

 

 • Chapter 40, Chronic Wasting Disease, Herd Certification: The amendments remove the requirement for a specific fence height, change herd inventory requirements to allow verification through means other than a hands-on process, and change the requirement for submission of samples in positive or suspected positive herds to mortalities of any age. For regular enrolled herds the required sampling age remains at 12 months.

 


 


 

 Wednesday, July 22, 2015

 

 Texas Certified Chronic Wasting Disease CWD Sample Collector, like the Wolf Guarding the Henhouse

 


 

 *** Infectious agent of sheep scrapie may persist in the environment for at least 16 years ***

 

 Gudmundur Georgsson1, Sigurdur Sigurdarson2 and Paul Brown3

 


 

 PRION 2015 CONFERENCE FT. COLLINS CWD RISK FACTORS TO HUMANS

 

 *** LATE-BREAKING ABSTRACTS PRION 2015 CONFERENCE ***

 

 O18

 

 Zoonotic Potential of CWD Prions

 

 Liuting Qing1, Ignazio Cali1,2, Jue Yuan1, Shenghai Huang3, Diane Kofskey1, Pierluigi Gambetti1, Wenquan Zou1, Qingzhong Kong1 1Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, 2Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy, 3Encore Health Resources, Houston, Texas, USA

 

 ***These results indicate that the CWD prion has the potential to infect human CNS and peripheral lymphoid tissues and that there might be asymptomatic human carriers of CWD infection.***

 

 P.105: RT-QuIC models trans-species prion transmission

 

 Kristen Davenport, Davin Henderson, Candace Mathiason, and Edward Hoover Prion Research Center; Colorado State University; Fort Collins, CO USA

 

 Additionally, human rPrP was competent for conversion by CWD and fCWD.

 

 ***This insinuates that, at the level of protein:protein interactions, the barrier preventing transmission of CWD to humans is less robust than previously estimated.***

 


 

 From: Terry S. Singeltary Sr.

 

 Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2014 9:29 PM

 

 To: Terry S. Singeltary Sr.

 

 Subject: THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE R. G. WILL 1984

 

 THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE

 

 R. G. WILL

 

 1984

 

 *** The association between venison eating and risk of CJD shows similar pattern, with regular venison eating associated with a 9 FOLD INCREASE IN RISK OF CJD (p = 0.04). (SEE LINK IN REPORT HERE...TSS) PLUS, THE CDC DID NOT PUT THIS WARNING OUT FOR THE WELL BEING OF THE DEER AND ELK ;

 

 snip...

 


 

 *** These results would seem to suggest that CWD does indeed have zoonotic potential, at least as judged by the compatibility of CWD prions and their human PrPC target. Furthermore, extrapolation from this simple in vitro assay suggests that if zoonotic CWD occurred, it would most likely effect those of the PRNP codon 129-MM genotype and that the PrPres type would be similar to that found in the most common subtype of sCJD (MM1).***

 


 

 *** The potential impact of prion diseases on human health was greatly magnified by the recognition that interspecies transfer of BSE to humans by beef ingestion resulted in vCJD. While changes in animal feed constituents and slaughter practices appear to have curtailed vCJD, there is concern that CWD of free-ranging deer and elk in the U.S. might also cross the species barrier. Thus, consuming venison could be a source of human prion disease. Whether BSE and CWD represent interspecies scrapie transfer or are newly arisen prion diseases is unknown. Therefore, the possibility of transmission of prion disease through other food animals cannot be ruled out. There is evidence that vCJD can be transmitted through blood transfusion. There is likely a pool of unknown size of asymptomatic individuals infected with vCJD, and there may be asymptomatic individuals infected with the CWD equivalent. These circumstances represent a potential threat to blood, blood products, and plasma supplies.

 


 

 O.05: Transmission of prions to primates after extended silent incubation periods: Implications for BSE and scrapie risk assessment in human populations

 

 Emmanuel Comoy, Jacqueline Mikol, Val erie Durand, Sophie Luccantoni, Evelyne Correia, Nathalie Lescoutra, Capucine Dehen, and Jean-Philippe Deslys Atomic Energy Commission; Fontenay-aux-Roses, France

 

 Prion diseases (PD) are the unique neurodegenerative proteinopathies reputed to be transmissible under field conditions since decades. The transmission of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) to humans evidenced that an animal PD might be zoonotic under appropriate conditions. Contrarily, in the absence of obvious (epidemiological or experimental) elements supporting a transmission or genetic predispositions, PD, like the other proteinopathies, are reputed to occur spontaneously (atpical animal prion strains, sporadic CJD summing 80% of human prion cases). Non-human primate models provided the first evidences supporting the transmissibiity of human prion strains and the zoonotic potential of BSE. Among them, cynomolgus macaques brought major information for BSE risk assessment for human health (Chen, 2014), according to their phylogenetic proximity to humans and extended lifetime. We used this model to assess the zoonotic potential of other animal PD from bovine, ovine and cervid origins even after very long silent incubation periods. *** We recently observed the direct transmission of a natural classical scrapie isolate to macaque after a 10-year silent incubation period, ***with features similar to some reported for human cases of sporadic CJD, albeit requiring fourfold longe incubation than BSE. Scrapie, as recently evoked in humanized mice (Cassard, 2014), ***is the third potentially zoonotic PD (with BSE and L-type BSE), ***thus questioning the origin of human sporadic cases. We will present an updated panorama of our different transmission studies and discuss the implications of such extended incubation periods on risk assessment of animal PD for human health.

 

 ===============

 

 ***thus questioning the origin of human sporadic cases...TSS

 

 ===============

 


 

 Wednesday, March 18, 2015

 

 *** Chronic Wasting Disease CWD Confirmed Texas Trans Pecos March 18, 2015

 


 

 Wednesday, March 25, 2015

 

 *** Chronic Wasting Disease CWD Cases Confirmed In New Mexico 2013 and 2014 UPDATE 2015

 


 

 Wednesday, July 01, 2015

 

 *** TEXAS Chronic Wasting Disease Detected in Medina County Captive Deer

 


 

 Tuesday, July 21, 2015

 

 *** Texas CWD Medina County Herd Investigation Update July 16, 2015 ***

 


 

 Thursday, August 06, 2015

 

 *** WE HAVE LOST TEXAS TO CWD TASK FORCE CATERING TO INDUSTRY

 


 

 Friday, August 07, 2015

 

 *** Texas CWD Captive, and then there were 4 ?

 


 

 TEXAS DEER CZAR SENT TO WISCONSIN TO SOLVE CWD CRISIS, WHILE ROME (TEXAS) BURNS

 

 Tuesday, August 11, 2015

 

 *** Wisconsin doing what it does best, procrastinating about CWD yet again thanks to Governor Walker

 


 

 *** Danger of Canned Hunting Indiana Wildlife ***

 


 

 a review since the TEXAS 84th Legislature commencing this January, deer breeders are expected to advocate for bills that will seek to further ***deregulate*** their industry...

 

 Sunday, December 14, 2014

 

 TEXAS 84th Legislature commencing this January, deer breeders are expected to advocate for bills that will seek to further ***deregulate*** their industry

 


 

 Tuesday, December 16, 2014

 

 Texas 84th Legislature 2015 H.R. No. 2597 Kuempel Deer Breeding Industry TAHC TPWD CWD TSE PRION

 


 

 Thursday, August 20, 2015

 

 *** TEXAS TAHC DEER BREEDER CWD PERMIT RULES EMERGENCY ADOPTION PREAMBLE ***

 


 

Thursday, August 20, 2015

 

TEXAS CAPTIVE Deer Industry, Pens, Breeding, Big Business, Invites Crooks and CWD

 


 


 

 TSS

posted by Terry S. Singeltary Sr. at 4:29 PM

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