https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1881672

cliff notes- allows breeders certain protected right to treat deer inside a pen as pets, for their own use and control for personal gain and benefit. besides the shooting of pen raised captive deer in a make manufactured hunting scenario , there would be no real guardrails to keep them from selling/ transferring/shipping deer with no consequences for sending potential diseased deer to other locations that could impact wild deer. Am I missing something? not to step on the toes of a private business people, but deer are not cattle.
Any thoughts?

Terrible legislation. From the reading of the bill it would prevent the state from investigating diseased deer located in the breeders facilitiy and prohibit the state stopping the owner from transferring that diseased deer to someone else or into the wild. I need to re read it but from first pass it looks terrible.

no


they wipe out whole flocks chicken and cows and hogs because of disease, why not pet deer ? they want them like livestock ,,, fine!!!!!!!

Ask yourself, what current politician could possibly benefit from this?

Rhymes with Ainsworth

This. $$$

Bad bill, write or email your reps and ask them not to support it.

I thought the family had sold Dream Ranch.

The Ainsworth effect. And someone asked what was wrong with him for Govenor? Well, here's you answer.

That's what I thought as well

Yup

About 5 years ago.

https://www.sandmountainreporter.com/free_share/article_cd4890f8-9160-11ea-8f81-63110ed05011.html#:~:text=Claire%20and%20Kyle%20Richards%20will,the%20ranch's%20famed%20hunting%20lodge.

Do you think that means he has no interest in helping out the person that paid them top dollar for it?

You're really grasping at straws now. Your first post in this thread missed by a mile so now he's greedy for getting top dollar in a sale and wants to help the people who bought his property. Riiiight

How much were the Ainsworths paid for Dream Ranch and what is top dollar? I thought anyone selling their property wants top dollar for it, but I guess that's considered greedy when you put a fence around it.

What benefit does this legislation provide to Ainsworth? Here's your answer - None.

There are literally hundreds of high fence operators in Alabama, and any one of them could have pushed this bill through their state house representative.

Want to find the culprit instead of BS speculation? See which house member introduced the bill and who owns a breeding facility in that district.

Unfortunately, this bill has traction. 8 of the 15 members of the House Agriculture and Forestry Committee are sponsors of this bill. After re-reading and researching this bill, it appears to me that this will place the deer herd in Alabama at great risk due to disease that might originate in these enclosures and the state will have little investigative or prohibitive tools available to them. These high fence operators and legislators are willing to risk introduction of disease to the overall deer herd in the state for their own personal gain. I'm not usually the type to call/e-mail on about bills before the legislator but this one is serious enough that I will and ask my friends to do so as well.

Email I received from DCNR;

Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

April 7, 2025
Contact: Billy Pope at billy.pope@dcnr.alabama.gov / (334) 242-3151; or Kenny Johnson at kenny.johnson@dcnr.alabama.gov / (334) 242-3163

Statement of Conservation Commissioner Chris Blankenship on HB 509 Concerning Deer Breeders

Last week, HB 509 (related to deer breeders) was introduced by Representative Jeff Sorrells of Hartford. This bill should be disturbing to all ethical sportsmen, hunters, and citizens in Alabama. Alabamians have a constitutional right to hunt and fish in this state. HB 509 would jeopardize that right. The deer breeder legislation would declare that deer within a breeder facility are personal property of the owner, like pets. Deer breeders then place those pet deer in small pens or fences and they could be shot by individuals for a large fee paid to the breeder. This practice is neither ethical nor sporting, and tarnishes the reputation and traditional hunting methods shared by hunters and sportsmen alike.

The legislation also limits the ability of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to adequately inspect these facilities and test for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) or other diseases. Most concerning, the legislation would allow the reckless transfer of diseased deer by deer breeders to any facility, property, or person anywhere in the state. This would drastically increase the risk of the spread of CWD or other diseases to all parts of Alabama and threatens the $2 billion economic impact traditional hunting provides for the businesses of our state, especially in the rural areas. This is totally unacceptable.

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is strongly opposed to this legislation. The reckless disregard in this legislation for the rights of deer hunters, the citizens of Alabama, the economic impact of hunting, and the deer population is disturbing and unfathomable. The legislation is assigned to the House Agriculture and Forestry Committee. Contact information for House Agriculture and Forestry committee members is provided below.

House Agriculture and Forestry Committee Contact Information

Alisha Glover, Clerk
Email: alisha.glover@alhouse.gov
Phone: (334) 261-0450

Danny Crawford, Chairman
Email: danny.crawford@alhouse.gov
Statehouse phone: (334) 261-0516
District phone: (256) 871-1944

Steve Hurst, Vice Chairman
Email: steve.hurst@alhouse.gov
Statehouse phone: (334) 261-0415
District phone: (334) 280-3276

Can someone tell me how a state agency is using state resources to lobby for or against legislative action?

I really wish folks would just stop talking about CWD. It scares folks, and really does not appear to be a problem.

It can't transmit to humans, it has not been responsible for any significant mortality (except for when game & fish agencies slaughter a bunch), apparently, it really doesn't spread that easy. There are still counties in Wisconsin with zero reported cases, even though it's been there for decades, and they still have plenty of deer.

I am aware of several HUGE ranches in Texas who ended their deer breeding programs (mostly native South Texas genetics) because the CWD question was so difficult to deal with, and there was always the possibility that one deer could test positive and cause the rancher to have to slaughter their entire herd. Even if it was a false positive, because there was no re-testing available to save the herd. Also no provision to save uninfected animals, just a total slaughter.

I am aware of one rancher who was forced to slaughter his entire breeder herd, valued at over $2 million, even though he proved the test was a false positive. His primary business was selling pasture deer to improve low fence herds with native genetics. Zero hunting on his place.

When that happened, I know of at least a dozen ranches who released every deer they had in their breeder pens. Some went to their own low fence pastures, some were on a larger high fence place. None had ever had a positive test anywhere close, but all the ones I personally knew said the risk of loss was just too great.

That's just how stupid the testing was. A "breeder pen" was subject to testing and slaughter, but the same deer could be released into a larger enclosure without the same risk.

They want you to be scared. Scared people are easily convinced.

I read that these high fence pen raised deer farms and ranch high fence deer operations genetically enhanced deer have a very high rate of disease. If the disease is non communicable then what's the worry, certain the deer will die of some inherent genetic death sentence. On the other hand if it's a communicable disease then the risks are far too great to place the states deer herds under such threat,

I also read once that there are 27 sub species of white tailed deer in our states der herd.... some from around the country due to overharvest some decades ago when the herd was near wiped out, so how many contagious disease ridden deer could have been placed amongst Alabama's herd ? Back then was a genetic or otherwise infected deer even considered as being a threat ?