The heat of summer has finally melted away the memory of the Polar Vortex and other nastiness of the 2014 winter. Copious snow and bitterly cold temperatures were a hardship for humans, yet a near tragedy for wildlife.
With whitetail deer on the verge of starvation, did you hear the Humane Society of the United States clamoring for support to feed the imperiled animals? Of course not, since their main goal is to push their personal political agenda with little regard to animal welfare. Who stepped up to the plate? Hunters, of course, as the following blog from KARE 11 clearly shows.
A deer hunters’ group says an emergency deer-feeding project this year cost about $200,000 to buy and distribute more than 500 tons of deer food. A Mesabi Daily News report says officials expected to spend about $170,000. The program was funded by a program that imposes a 50-cent surcharge per deer-hunting license.
The Minnesota Deer Hunters Association says there was extra urgency this year because of last year’s harsh conditions. The group says the winter was so severe that it threatened the survival of many deer in northeastern Minnesota. The association lobbied for intervention, and the state Department of Natural Resources approved the expenditure. Nearly 1,000 volunteers distributed feed to about 1,100 sites across 13 DNR-approved deer-permit areas.
