New York State Conservation Council, Inc.

8 East Main Street , Ilion , NY 13357

 For Immediate Release

 Contact:  Howard Cushing, Jr.    518/674-2961

 Howard Cushing, Jr., President of the 70+ year old New York State Conservation Council, representing over 1200 clubs and associated organizations statewide with a membership of over 300,000 sportsmen and women and conservationists, issued the following statement concerning the discovery of two deer in Oneida County with Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD):

We are appalled and dismayed at the lack of Agriculture & Markets doing a better survey and management of game farms that have animals susceptible to Chronic Wasting Disease.  This disease has been traveling west to east for the last few years, and measures should have been taken to prevent the outbreak in New York State .  The possibility of CWD spreading to the wild deer population would have major implications resulting in loss of recreational opportunity; a loss of millions of dollars to the economic benefit provided through deer hunting and recreational watching, hotel, motel, gas stations, grocery stores, etc., whose livelihood, especially in Oneida County , relies on it heavily.

We do not believe that Agriculture and Markets has the capability or expertise that the Department of Environmental Conservation has and therefore should allow DEC to play a major role in this investigation.  Furthermore, DEC has prudently taken measures to control CWD to the best of its ability.  It has, for example, banned through regulation the feeding of wild deer to help prevent the spread of CWD. 

Since it appears there may be lax enforcement on the part of Ag & Markets to properly monitor such game farms, we are now asking Agriculture & Markets Commissioner Rudgers to put a quarantine on all game farms containing deer and elk in New York State until such time as a full investigation has been conducted and determination of whether or not other circumstances that have the potential to destroy the wild deer population have been remedied.

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